Halloween

Every year, Halloween falls on October 31st.

The origin of Halloween dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated the new year on November 1st. This day marked the beginning of the dark and cold winter that was associated with human death. The Celts believed the boundary between the world of the living and dead became blurred the night before the new year.

On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain whenever it was believed that ghosts of the dead had returned to earth. Celts believed that the presence of such otherworldly spirits allowed both Druids and Celtic priests to have an easier time making predictions about the future.

Druids built huge sacred bonfires where people gathered together in order to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities and this started off the event. During the actual celebration, the Celts wore costumes made up of animal heads and skins and tried to tell each other's fortunes. Once the celebration came to an end, hearth fires were re-lit from the sacred bonfire, in order to help protect them during the winter that was soon to come.

Romans, by A.D. 43, had conquered most of the Celtic territory. During the first four hundred years that Romans ruled the Celtic lands, two Roman festivals were combined with the celebration of Samhain. The two festivals were Feralia and a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.

Feralia was a day in late October when the Romans honored the passing of the dead.

The day honoring Pomona was different of course. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and this probably explains the tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced to this very day on Halloween.

Christianity influence had spread into Celtic lands by the 800s. Pope Boniface IV designated November 1st All Saints' Day, which was a time to honor saints and martyrs. Today it is believed that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related church based holiday.

The celebration was also known as All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it began to be called All-hallows Eve which is now called Halloween.

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