Halloween is a tradition that is celebrated every year on October 31st. To many people, Halloween is simply an opportunity to dress up and celebrate with friends and family. Many modern day traditions include haunted houses, trick or treating for candy, and dressing up in elaborate costumes, but how did Halloween begin?

Also known as All Hallows’ Eve, Halloween began about 2,000 years ago from the Celtic festival of Samhain, which is Gaelic for “summer’s end”. Samhain was celebrated to commemorate the ending of the summer and the start of winter. During this time, winter was known as the time of death. On the night between the two days that the seasons change, people believed they could communicate with the dead. This night was thought to be a night where the split between the living and the dead was not clear. The priests of the time, known as Druids, created large bonfires and made sacrifices to the dead by burning things like crops or animals. It was at these sacrifices that the concept of costumes on Halloween originated: the people would dress up in costumes usually involving animal heads and skins to attend this bonfire.

Trick-or-treating is one of the many traditions that coincides with Halloween. This tradition originated from when people would travel from house to house knocking on the door, begging for food, known as “mumming” or “guising”. Another theory involves “souling”, which was when people knocked on doors asking for food and offering prayers for the dead in return.  This practice was prevalent in both Ireland and Britain.

Years of practices came together to form the holiday, whether it was the sacrificial practices of the Celtic or the mumming of the British.  These practices traveled to the United States after World War II and were interpreted and transformed into the spooky holiday of Halloween.  

Happy Halloween!

Sources: History, Live Science

Photo Source: Raysonho via Wikimedia Commons