The History of Halloween

Halloween is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. It might sound odd, but, yes, Halloween was started from a superstition of an ancient civilization. Celtic Samhain, which means Seed-fall, celebrated deliberate misrule and defiance at or around October 31st.

It was a time when the veil between this world and the Otherworld was thought to be so thin that the dead could return to warm themselves at the hearths of the living, and some of the living, especially poets, were able to enter the Otherworld through the doorways of the Sidhe. Our modern Halloween stems from Samhain, and the traditional pumpkin lanterns come from when the Celts placed the skulls of ancestors outside their doors at this time. The Christians took over the Celtic festival and turned it into All Saints Day. Some Christians today still takes Halloween as the “devils” day. Although, Halloween is an exciting celebration for everyone, make sure that you stay safe and be careful this Halloween season.

The most worldwide celebration of Halloween, of course, involves wearing costumes. Costumes have actually been a staple of Halloween for a very long time, originating once again with the Celtic festivals. During the Celtic festivals, supernatural beings and souls of the dead were thought to roam the Earth. The people attending the Celtic festivals believed that if they appeased the departed souls and the supernatural beings, they and their livestock would survive the winter. People would go in costumes from house to house and recite verses to receive food from the people living there. If the people living there didn’t give food to the people in costume, a bad life was sure to follow. Along with bad luck some of the people in costume also threatened the poor souls living there until they received food.

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