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Halloween

  Halloween is right around the corner. Have you ever wondered where Halloween originated? Well, here is a little information you may not have known.

  Halloween originated over 2000 years ago as the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain in Ireland. The ancient Celtic roots began as the Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1, marking the end of the harvest and the start of the dark cold winter.

They also believed the boundary between the living and the dead blurred on the night of October 31. The people lit huge bonfires and wore costumes to trick or ward off roaming spirits.

The Christian influence on all "Hallows Day" began in the eighth century. The Church designated November 1 as All Saints Day to honour the saints.

  The night before October 31 became known as "All Hallows Eve" which was eventually shortened to Halloween. Over centuries, pagan harvest festivals and Christians Holy Days merged into a single seasonal observance. As the evolution of North America began to grow, Irish immigration fleeing from famine in the mid-nineteenth century, Irish immigrants brought Halloween costumes to the United States.

   Jack-O-Lanterns which had carved scary faces into turnips and potatoes shifted to native American pumpkins. By the Twentieth century, trick or treating and community celebrations made it a major secular holiday.

The history of trick or treating comes from a mix of ancient Irish, Scottish and English traditions. In old Scotland and Ireland, children dressed up in costumes and went door-to-door. They performed songs or tricks in exchange for food, coins or fruit.

   In the early 1900s, Halloween in America was mostly about mischief and pranks. In the 1930s towns brought back the treat idea to stop vandalism.

The actual term "trick or treat" first appeared in print in western Canada and the United States in the late 1920s.

There you have it, the origin of Halloween.