The Ancient Origins Of Halloween

The Ancient Origins of Halloween

Halloween is celebrated every 31st of October. The holiday is riddled with superstition and a timeless celebration. The origins of Halloween are said to trace back to the time where Celtic festivals spread throughout the world. The Celtic holiday of Samhain is said to be the original origin of most modern Halloween festivities due to Samhain being a night where people would surround bonfires and dress in disguises to ward away malevolent ghosts. The more modern take on Halloween didn’t come about until sometime in the 8th century when Pope Gregory III officially designated the 1st of November as All Saints Day, day for honoring the martyrs and saints. All Saints Day incorporated a lot of traditional Samhain beliefs and festivities. The evening before Saints Day was then referred to as All Hallows’ Eve, and later became the holiday that we call Halloween.

Halloween

The Celtic New Year was November 1 because this day marked the ending of summer and the harvest, while ushering in a cold winter time that during this time was often associated with death and disease. For the Celts, Samhain was the equivalent of the modern day New Year’s Eve. The Celts believed that on this night the veil between worlds, the living and the dead, was at its weakest. They believed that on Samhain, ghosts could cross back into our world. The ghosts the Celts imagined were more like poltergeists, able to damage property and cause massive amounts of trouble. The Celts believed that on Samhain, the Druids, or priests, would be able to make predictions on the future of the people from natural disasters to bountiful crops. The Celts were completely dependent on the natural world at the time, so these prophesies were an important source of information for the people. They depended on these prophesies in order to determine how they as a people would survive the dark