ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN

Two thousand years ago, the people of France and England were Celtic. They were afraid of the night of October 31st because they used to thing evil spirits came out that night since October 31st was the day they had "Samhain", which is the ceremony of the dead. During the Samhain ceremony, the druids, who were members of the priestly class, held cruel rituals, burning the prisoners, criminals and live animals. The druids claimed they could predict the future through dead animals.

Later, the Romans invaded the land of the Celtics. The Romans celebrated holiday called "Feralia" in October, which was held in the honour of the dead. After a long period of time, the Roman and Celtic holidays were combined into a whole new holiday.

About four-hundred years after the birth of Jesus Christ, a new religion, called Christianism was developed. The Christians tried to get rid of this Roman and Celtic holiday because they considered this evil. Finally, the English Christians transformed the holiday into "All Hallow Eve" which was celebrated on November 1st. The All Hallow Eve was for honour the dead Christians.

However, the Celtic tradition continued even after the new Christian holiday. On October 31st night, in certain villages of Scotland, people put food in front of their doors for the spirits that came out that night. This is where the tradition of dressing up as ghosts and asking for candies derived from.

Halloween came to the United States when European immigrants "brought their varied Halloween customs with them". In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants from Ireland. By combining Irish and English traditions, Americans began the "trick-or-treat" tradition. In the later 1800's the holiday became more centered on community and in the 1920's and 1930's, Halloween became "a secular, but community-centered holiday". This all led to what Halloween actually is like today.