The Origin of Halloween

Many people always wonder how Halloween started. Who would come up with the idea to dress up and go door to door asking for candy? What people don’t know is that Halloween dates back to thousands of centuries ago in about 200 BC.

The holiday can be traced back to the ancient Celtic culture in Ireland. Their Druid religion worshiped Samhain, the “Lord of Darkness”. The Druids separated their seasons with just summer and winter. Translated, Samhain means “Summer’s End,” which at this time the hours of nighttime were growing over the hours of sunlight. Hence, Lord Somhain ruled over the long winter months and could only come out in the dark.

The Druid New Year began on November 1st, also known as the “Feast of Samhain”. On New Year’s Eve, the Druids believed that everyone who died the past year would rise and search for a passageway to the netherworld. They believed that on this night, the passageway or “veil” connecting both worlds was at its thinnest. Druids thought that the presence of the spirits made it easier for the Celtic priests to make predictions about the future.

To celebrate the event, Druids would build sacred bonfires where people would gather and burn crops and animals as sacrifices. Everyone would dress up in costumes usually made of animal heads and skins attempting to tell each others fortunes.

Halloween has changed a lot since 200 BC. Many more religions added on their own different traditions and as the event spread to other countries more and more about it changed. Pretty interesting huh? Who knew we could get Halloween from that!