The celebration of Halloween today is a mixture of rituals and celebrations from a lot of different people. The earliest origin is from the Celts, who lived in Scotland. On October 31, they celebrated what they called Samhain (pronounced So-in). It was the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the cold, dark winters. The Celts believed that on Oct 31, the Lord of Death released souls back to Earth.

On October 31, the Celts wore scary costumes because they believed that then the evil spirits wouldn't recognize them as humans and wouldn't mess with them. This is probably where the tradition of dressing up in costumes on Halloween came from.


When the Romans conquered the Celts in 46 AD, the combined the Celtic rituals with their own harvest celebrations: this is where apples (as in Bobbing for Apples) and corn came into the celebration.


As Christianity spread, the church combined the non-Christian celebration with their own celebration of All Saints' Day (also called All Hallows' Day, celebrated on Nov 1). To celebrate all Saints' Day, young men went door-to-door asking for food for the poor. This is one of the places Trick-or-Treating came from!


One more thing. Wonder where the whole Jack-o-Lantern thing came from? Well, before there were flashlights and such, Irish people used to carve out turnips and put a candle in them for a lantern. When they came to America, they noticed there weren't many turnips, but lots and lots of pumpkins, so they used them instead!

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