Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic
festival of Samhain. The
Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, celebrated their new year on November 1. This
day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark,
cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts
believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between the worlds
of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they
celebrated Samhain, when it
was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to
causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the
otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make
predictions about the future.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people
gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During
the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads
and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration
was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier
that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming
winter.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the
course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two
festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration
of Samhain.
The first was Feralia,
a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of
the dead. The second was a day to honor
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the
seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time
to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was
attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but
church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints'
Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and,
eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November
2 All Souls' Day, 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.