Halloween is one of the oldest and most popular holidays still celebrated today, second only to Christmas. While a lot of people celebrate Halloween without knowing its facts and myths, while it’s history makes the holiday more fascinating.

Halloween is celebrated on the 31st October, the last day of the celtic calendar. It was originally a pagan holiday, a day to honor the dead. Halloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago. All Hallows Eve is the evening before the All Saints Day, which was created by the Christians to convert the pagans, and is celebrated on 1st November. The Catholic church honored saints on this specific day.With many versions of the old customs of Halloween, different cultures view Halloween differently but traditional Halloween practices still remain more or less the same.

Halloween culture can be tracked back to the Druids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe. Origin lays in the feast of “Samhain” which fell annually on the 31st to honor the dead. It was a harvest festival with huge sacred bonfires and signifies “End Of Summer” or November marking the end of the Celtic year and beginning of a new one.  Though many practices are followed on this day, lot of them are fed on superstitions. It was believed that on this day, the soul of the dead roamed the streets at night and hence gifts and treats were left out to pacify the evil and ensure next years crops would be plentiful.

This custom eventually evoked into trick or partying and most of the people view Halloween as a time for fun, putting on fancy costumes, tricking or treating and having theme parties, though many still participate in it as a “Evil Holiday”.