What are the origins of Halloween?

Halloween is celebrated each year in the United States on October 31, but what did the holiday originate from?

When people think about Halloween these days, they think of dressing up in costumes, carving pumpkins, handing out candy, and many more related festivities. It’s seemingly a joyous time that brings people together, and some even try to scare each other, all in good fun hopefully.

The way Halloween is celebrated today of course originated and evolved from events and practices that came before it. According to History.com, Halloween originated from the ancient Celtic festival called Samhain. This Celtic festival began being celebrated about two thousand years ago, where people allegedly wore costumes to fight off ghosts.

The festival was a celebration of the commencement of summer and was getting people ready for the winter time that was soon approaching. Unfortunately during this time, many people were dying as a result of the extremely cold weather, and the Celtics believed that their ghosts would return to earth the day before the weather was going to change. This led to the creation of their celebration called Samhain, to be able to commemorate the ghosts that returned to earth.

Over the years the celebration continued to evolve and spread out among other countries and cultures, and they all added their own unique spin on it. The celebration eventually made its way to the United States, which helped pave the way to how Halloween is celebrated today.

Halloween quickly became one of the most popular holidays celebrated in the United States, and its participation level has reached all aspects of social life. Whether at school or work, you’ll almost certainly see something Halloween related as it gets closer to the date of the holiday.

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