Everyone knows that Halloween is celebrated annually on October 31, but exactly what is it that’s being celebrated? Could it really be an ancient form

of Satanism? An eerie remnant of some timeworn pagan ritual? Or is it just a harmless past time?

The word, “Halloween”, has its origins in several different places. In Ireland it is called the Hallow E’en, or the night before the “All Hallows”, also called “All

Hallowmas”, or “All Saints”, or “All Souls” Day, observed on November 1. In old English the world “Hallow” meant “sanctify”. Indeed it is often the Catholic Church which is credited with inventing the word. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. Indeed, Roman Catholics still observe November 1, “All Hallows Day”, (or “All Saints Day”), as a day to honor all saints. It is an important date on the Church calendar, and Catholics are required to attend Mass. In the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV initiated the celebration of All Saints’ Day to replace the pagan festival of the dead, which the Romans celebrated on February 21, the end of the Roman year. This new observance originally took place on May 13. Later, Gregory III changed the date to November.

Although there is an undeniable connection with the Roman Catholic Church, the American version of Halloween owes its origin to the ancient (Pre-Christian) Druidic fire festival called “Samhain”, pronounced “sow-in”, as in cow, which was celebrated in Celtic Ireland on October 31 as the official end

of summer, the start of the winter season, and the beginning of the Celtic

New Year.

Tradition held that on that day, or more accurately, that night, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was thought to be their only hope for an afterlife. The Celts believed all laws

of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

So on the night of October 31, villagers would take the added precaution of extinguishing the fires in the homes, to make them cold and unwelcoming. They would then dress up as hobgoblins, ghouls, etc, and march through the neighborhood in a near riotous state, causing as much chaos and destruction as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

Another side to this tradition was that it provided a feeling of unity as it enabled all the Celtic tribes to relight their fires from a shared source, the Druidic bonfire that was kept burning in the middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

Yet one more interesting aspect to this celebration was added by the Romans

in the first century A.D. Having adopted many of the Celtic customs as their own, Samhain was now absorbed into some of the other Roman celebrations that occurred in October. One of these was their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which is one possible explanation for the origin of our more recent tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

When looking at the practice of celebrating Halloween over time, it becomes obvious that there was never anything sinister about the day or its customs. It was merely an expression of the religious beliefs and rituals of the ancient Druids, and later included by the Romans in their October festivities.