Halloween is an annual holiday that is celebrated every October 31. Halloween today is known as a holiday were children dress up as there favorite caricature and go house to house collecting candy.

The word halloween rose from the contraction of the fraise o hallows een, hallow meaning holly or saintly and een a contraction of eve meaning the evening before.

Halloween origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, Samhain means ‘summer’s end’ in Irish. The Celts were a collection of tribes with origins in central Europe that had a similar language, religious beliefs, traditions and culture. The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1. The day marked the end of the summer and harvest and the beginning of the cold weather. This time was often associated with human death.

The end of October was believed to be an attentive time for spirits by the Celtic people. Celtic people believed the veil between the Otherworld and our world thins during Samhain, making it easier for spirits and the souls of the dead to return to our world.

To commemorate the event, people built huge sacred bonfires, where people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During this celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins. This was believed to hid there identity form any wondering spirits. This has bean thought to inspire why we dress up as masters an goblins today.

In the 19th century the the Christian church moved their holy day of All Saints Day form the month of May to November 1. This was part of a program to christianize popular Pagan practices.

Moving All Saints Day to Samhain only merged the two days together, crating a new event witch is now knows as halloween. The actives that are associated with it have Pagan or Christian influences.

Some of this can be seen in the carving of pumpkins. An old Irish tradition was to carve faces on turnips and put candles inside them. The Irish Brough this custom to the North America where there was a wide supply of pumpkins witch were also easy to carve. The carving of a pemican was used to signify the fight with the Devil and a man name Jack, this is why we call a caved pumpkin a Jack-o-lantern.

Trick or Treating originates form England. In the mid evil times there was a tradition were grouped of Christians would go around on Halloween door to door asking for soul cakes in exchange for pryer for the beloved souls that were departed. This is believed to have influences how we today go around and collect sweat and candy.

So the next time you get dress in your costume or carve a pumpkin know that is was all thanks to ancient tradition that came way before us.

Have A Happy Halloween!!!