Halloween Origins

Halloween’s origins go back to the ancient Celtic festival Samhain (sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, in what is now Ireland, believed that on the night before New Year's Eve the barrier between the worlds of living and the dead became blurred.  On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain.  During this celebration, the Celtic people wore costumes, (mostly animal heads and skins).  They believed that the ghosts of the dead came back  to Earth, caused trouble and damaged crops. They also thought that these spirits made it easier for the Celtic priests to tell the future. Life as a Celt was very difficult, so they needed these "beliefs" to relax and be entertained. To dedicate the event, Druids built a huge building where they could  burn crops and animals to sacrifice to their Gods.

By A.D.  43, Romans took over most of Celtic territory. When they came to their new territory, two of their customs combined with customary Celtic festivity of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans remembered their dead.  The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.  The symbol of Pomona is the apple, so this probably explains why we "bob for apples" on Halloween.

By the 800's, Christianity spread into Celtic lands.  In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV nominated November 1, which is All Saints’ Day, as a time to honor saints and martyrs.  It’s widely believed that by creating these days the Pope was trying to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned, holiday. The celebration was also called All-Hallows and the night before, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually would be called Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, which was to be called a day to honor the dead.  It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils.  Together, the three celebrations, the Eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.  This eventually turned in to Halloween.