What Halloween Was Really Like in Tudor England

Forget pumpkins and plastic skeletons, in Tudor England, Halloween was sacred.

 

On 31st October, All Hallows’ Eve marked the start of Hallowtide, a three-day festival blending pagan Samhain customs with Christian devotion:
- All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween) – ringing bells, lighting bonfires, wearing masks to ward off spirits, and “souling” for cakes to pray for the dead.
- All Saints’ Day (1 November) – honouring every saint and martyr in heaven.
- All Souls’ Day (2 November) – remembering all the departed, especially those in Purgatory.

In this episode, I step back into Tudor England to uncover:
- The origins of apple bobbing and “Nutcrack Night”
- How souling became the forerunner of trick-or-treating
- Why Hallowtide was both festive and deeply spiritual, a time to bridge the worlds of the living and the dead

So if you’ve ever wondered what Halloween meant before horror films and sweets, this is the story of how the Tudors honoured the dead, celebrated life, and kept the darkness at bay.

#Halloween #TudorHistory #HalloweenHistory #Hallowtide #OnThisDay #AllHallowsEve #AllSaintsDay #AllSoulsDay #AnneBoleynFiles