HALLOWEEN

Halloween as we know it today consists of children dressing up in costumes and collecting candy door-to-door from their neighborhoods, but the holiday itself was much different in the beginning.

Halloween itself began about 2,000 years ago, 5th century B.C. by the Celtics, superstitious people that lived in what is now Ireland, France, and Great Britain. The Celts had themselves a fire festival and feast that they called Samhain("sow-en) or "All Hallows Eve" on the 31st of October. It was to celebrate their third and last harvest and also because November 1st was their New Year. The Night between the two days was believed to be very special.

The Celtics had a strong belief that the night of Samhain was the one night of the year when the spiritual realm and the realm of the the living would be able to intertwine. The spirits of the dead and other spiritual creatures could enter the living realm at will. This was not good for the Celts because they believed that these spirits would harm their flocks, crops, and homes. There was a few things that the Celts could do to protect themselves from the paranormal visitors. One was to dress up to look like the spiritual visitors with masks and strange outfits. The Celts figured that if they looked like them, they would be safe. That's where dressing up as ghosts, demons, and monsters came from. The other thing that the Celts did was to leave food and drink outside their doors on that special night for the ghostly visitors in hopes that it would please them and so they would spare their homes from being harmed.

One positive belief the Celts had about Halloween night was that their priests, which where called Druids, would be best able to predict the future because of the presence of the ghosts and spirits. During this fire festival the Druids would sacrifice some of their animals(usually horses)or crops and sometimes even people in the hopes that their Gods would eventually end the cold, long winter to come. The bonfires would continue during the cold winter and the Celts people would all put their fires out in their homes and would relight them by transporting the fire from the main bonfires of the Druids. The name bonfire actually comes from the burning of animal bones in the Samhain fires called "bone-fire". To the Celtic people, Samhain or what we call Halloween was the number one celebration of the year.

Halloween has been called many things since Samhain fire festivals came about. Such as, "All Hallows Eve", "Hollowmas", "Hallow Even Fire", "All Hallows Fire","and of course "Samhain".

The 31st of October was not referred to as Halloween until some time in the 1700s. Because of the Christian church not agreeing with the pagan Celtics ways of burning humans for sacrifice and belief in magic and such, they made the witch and all things associated with them as Halloween mascots. It was a way to mock, and make fun of the old pagan ways and steer people away from such beliefs.

Today Halloween is mostly just fun and games.Witches today still celebrate Halloween, or as they still call it "Samhain". They use this special night to perform rituals in order to communicate with the deceased.