by Megan Worley

Created on: October 08, 2009

Despite the modern turn that Halloween has taken its origins can be found among the Celts who lived nearly 2,000 years ago in what is now Ireland. The Celts celebrated a very different type of Holiday than the Halloween that we celebrate today. The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1st, which was celebrated to mark the end of summer and the beginning of winter.

This night is related to the modern day holiday because the Celts felt that on the night before the New Year the boundary between the living world and the world of the dead lessened. This night, October 31st was known as Samhain and the peoples that celebrated it believed that on this night ghosts of the dead could return to the earth. These ghosts brought both good and bad outcomes. The Celts believed that on this night their priests could more easily predict the future but also that the ghosts could cause trouble and damage crops.

The celebration of this night was marked with huge bonfires, which were used to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. Although modern day Halloween celebrations do not include sacrifices there are other similarities between the two. The Celts, like modern day children, wore costumes to their celebrations. The costumes typically consisted of animal heads and furs. The Celts also followed a tradition in which they blew out their hearth fires and then ceremoniously relit them from the sacred bonfires.

The Celtic traditions were later combined with Roman ones to create a similar Holiday that honored the Roman Gods and beliefs. The Romans celebrated the time over two days. The first day was called Feralia and was a day that Roman's used to commemorate the death of family members. This day was always in late October. The second day of celebration served to honor the Roman goddess Pomona, who was the goddess of fruit and trees.

Nearly a thousand years later Christianity had spread into the area and soon after November 1st was termed All Saints' Day. This day was meant as a time for people to honor saints and martyrs. The night before soon because known as All-hallows Eve. A few years later the church made November 2nd All Souls' Day, which was meant to honor the dead. This day had several striking similarities to the celebration of Samhain in that there were bonfires and costumes. Evening these two days and the night were combined into what today we know as Halloween.

Source: http://www.history.com/content/halloween/real-story- of-halloween

Learn more about this author, Megan Worley.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.