The History Of

Over 2, 000 years ago, the Celts celebrated a holiday called Samhain (pronounced "Sa-wan"). Samhain was the name of the God of Death. On the last day of October, the God Samhain allowed the souls of the dead to visit the homes they once lived in. And I thought the God of Death was a bad guy *wink*

As you can well imagine, this was a very scary night for the Celts. On that night they would leave their homes and gather together in a field. At the field they would build a huge bonfire. This fire was as big as a car and they used it to scare away all the evil spirits in the night.

It was not called Halloween at first. When the Romans first conquered the Celts, they added parts of two of their own festivals: Feralia (a festival held to honor the dead) and Poloma (named after the Roman Goddess of fruit and trees). Eventually the Celt religion was replaced by Christianity. Around 800 A.D. the Christian church declared November 1st as All Saints' Day. This day honors all the Saints who did not have a special day of their own. Not being able to completely let go of their old beliefs, people began incorporating their old customs from Samhian and the Roman festivals into the All Saints' Day rituals.

The mass said on All Saints' Day was known as Allhallowmas. The evening before, October 31st, became known as All Hallow Even. Over time the name has been shortened to Halloween.