Origins of Halloween

Have you ever wondered where Halloween came from? Halloween originated from the Celtic festival of Samhain (sow-in), the Celts lived in now what’s Ireland, UK and parts of northern France. In the eighth century, a pope decided to honor saints on November 1, this was All Saints Day. The evening before All Saints Day was All Hallow’s Eve or Halloween as it’s called now. In festival of Samhain, the people were believed to commune with the dead, on October 31, some stories said the dead returned to the world and damaged crops and other belongings. During this time, the Celtic druids and priests predicted the future, they believed the presence of the spirits made predictions more accurate. The people dressed up as dead people and sat around bonfires, during this time Halloween was more about the upcoming winter than the concept of death.

Both All Saints Day and Samhain influenced Halloween as we know it today. As Samhain evolved, adults and children would go “guising”, they would dress up and go around to their neighbours and ask for food, this is probably where trick o’ treating came from. One popular Halloween ritual was going to a mirror at midnight to see who you were going to get married to, this turned into the Bloody Mary, people would now go to mirror at midnight, not to see future spouses but to view the face of the scary Mary. Another thing associated with Halloween are black cats, which have become a popular costume, these cats were bad all year round and people always connected them to witchcrafts and magic. Halloween has now become more about being