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The origins of Halloween can be traced back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain ( pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2.000 years ago, mainly in the area that is now Ireland, the The United Kingdom and the north of France celebrated their new year on November 1.
This day marked the end of summer and harvest and the beginning of dark and cold winter, a time of year often associated with human death.
The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead became blurred.
On the night of 10 in October it was celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
In addition to causing problems and damaging crops, the Celts believed that the presence of spirits from another world made it easier for the druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people totally dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event , the druids built huge sacred bonfires, where people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the deities celts
During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, which generally consisted of animal heads and skins, and tried to guess the fate of others.
When the celebration was over, they relit their home fires, which had been extinguished that same night, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during next winter.
For the year 43 d. C., the Roman Empire had conquered most of the Celtic territory. Over the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
The first was Feralia, a day in late October on which the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead.
The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. Pomona’s symbol is the apple, and the addition of this celebration to Samhain probably explains the tradition of apple picking that is practiced today on Halloween.
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