Halloween Origins

Halloween is a festive time of the year, which is celebrated on October 31. Carving pumpkins, children going door-to-door collecting candy, spooky decorations, visiting haunted house attractions are just some examples of Halloween actives. But Halloween wasn't always this cheerful and festive. 

Halloween came from the Celtic culture from over 2,000 years ago. Celtic people celebrated an event called Samhain. Samhain is a festival marking the end of the harvest season (summer) and the beginning of the darker half of the year (winter). The Celtics believed that during the time of the transition of summer to winter, the bridge to the world of the dead opened. 

There is many feasts, wearing ghoulish costumes, bonfires, sacrificial offerings (for example candy, crops and animals), and homage to the dead during Samhain. A lot of iconic ghouls were associated with Samhain for example ghosts, vampires, werewolves, witches, and zombies.  Not a lot of Samhain practices survived to present day Halloween traditions.