From Trick or Treating to Halloween parties, the Spooky Season and Halloween in general has made a huge impact on our lives. The holiday has been celebrated for 2000 years and throughout this entire time span people have celebrated this holiday in multiple ways.
Halloween was not originally known as Halloween, but instead was called The Festival of Samhain and was only celebrated by the Celts. This festival was held on October 31st every year, where Celts believed that the ghost world and the human world collided. However, the Celts were not fond of ghosts coming into the human world, seeing how they believed havoc would occur if the ghosts appeared in the human world. Usually, what the normal festivities would be, were that a Celtic priest, also known as a Druid, would light a bonfire and citizens from all over town would gather around with sweets while wearing costumes to scatter off the ghosts.
Usually people all over North America do Halloween activities such as carving up pumpkins or Trick or Treating. When Halloween or “ The Festival of Samhain “ was held, instead of carving pumpkins, the Celtic people would usually carve out turnips and light a candle inside of them, which they believed would help rid off evil spirits. During that time period also, many children were orphans and during The Festival of Samhain, citizens were usually forced to give away food, or to be specific they would give away soulcakes. This idea for the orphans would usually be known as “going – a – souling,” where every year they would go house to house, and beg for food, contrasting the way we “go a souling” nowadays where we dress up and ask for sweets for a fun time instead of survival.
We now know the origins of Halloween, but how did this holiday name end up getting such a different name to the original? In the 8th Century, the Celtic Catholic Church established a new holiday known as All Saints Day, which would be held on November 1st. The day before that would officially be known as All Hallows Eve, seeing how it would be the Eve of All Saints Day. Even though the holiday is still known as All Hallows Eve, the name got shortened to Halloween towards the end of the 18th century. Over the centuries, Halloween has changed in many ways a lot of people do not recognize.