Halloween originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated on October 31st. The Celts believed this was when the boundary between the living and dead was at its thinnest. Over time, Samhain merged with Christian holidays and traditions, becoming Halloween. Irish immigrants in the 1800s brought Halloween to North America, establishing traditions like trick-or-treating. By the 1950s, Halloween had evolved into a community holiday focused on children's costumes and collecting candy. Today, Halloween retains ancient superstitions while incorporating modern traditions.

1. History of
Halloween

2. Introduction
• Every year on October 31st we celebrate Halloween by
dressing up in costume and consuming large amounts of
candy!
• This holiday has origins that go back over 2,000 years ago
which makes it one of the oldest celebrated holidays.
• It was brought to North America in the middle 1800s with
the mass Irish immigration.
• Halloween at this time was much different that the
Halloween we celebrate today.

3. Ancient Origins
• Halloween’s origin dates back to the Celtic festival of
Samhain (pronounced sow-in) which was celebrated on
October 31st.
• The Celtics lived in what is now Ireland, England, and
Northern France.
• They celebrated their new year on November 1st which was
seen as when the ghosts of the dead returned to Earth.
• This marked when the end of harvest and summer along
with the beginning of cold, dark winter which was often
associated with death.

4. The Druids
• Druids, or Celtic Priests, would try to make predictions
during Samhain for what was to come the following year.
• They would build huge bonfires to burn crops and animal
sacrifices and try to tell each others fortunes around the
fire.
• After the celebration was all over they would relight their
hearth fires from the sacred bonfire.
• It was believed that this sacred fire would keep them safe
during the long winter.

5. The Conquering Romans
• In 43 A.D. the Roman Empire conquered a majority of Celtic
territory.
• In the nearly 400 years of their rule many of their customs
merged with the Celtic traditions.
• Feralia, a day in late October when Romans would honor
their dead; and another festival Pomona, which honored
the goddess of fruit and trees. Pomona’s symbol was an
apple.
• The incorporation of these festivals is believed to be the
origin for “bobbing” for apples.

6. Pope Boniface IV and Pope Gregory III
• On May 13, 609 A.D. Pope Boniface IV, established a
Catholic feast in honor of all Christian martyrs known as All
Martyrs Day.
• Pope Gregory III expanded that day to involve all the Saints
and moved the day to November 1st.
• By this point Christianity had spread far into Celtic areas
and traditions were being blended with old Celtic rites.
• In 1000 A.D. the Roman Catholic Church declared
November 2nd All Souls Day.

7. All Souls Day
• All Souls Day was celebrated very similarly to the Celtic
Samhain with bonfires, parades, and dressing up in
costume.
• The All Saints Day and All Souls Day were also known as All-
hallows or All-Hallowmas.
• This word comes from the Middle English word
Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day.
• The night before this day was then called All-hallows Eve
and was eventually known as Halloween.

8. Halloween Immigrates to America
• Halloween did not find its way to America until about the
1800s.
• During colonial times the celebrations were very limited due to
strict Protestant rule against Roman Catholic traditions.
• All different types of cultures began to mix with the various
European groups and the Native American Tribes and a distinct
version of Halloween began to emerge.
• During the Fall telling of ghost stories and mischief were
common with various harvest festivals, but Halloween was not
yet celebrated.

9. Taking Traditions
• In the later 1800s the famine in Ireland flooded North
America with Irish immigrants and these immigrants
brought traditions with them.
• These immigrants led to the popularization of Halloween
from Irish and English customs.
• Americans began to dress up and go house to house for
food and money which led to modern Trick-or-Treating. But
there was much more focus on the tricking part.

10. Molding Halloween
• Halloween began to mold into a community holiday and
get-togethers about witchcraft, pranks, and goodies.
• Parties became the most common way to celebrate.
• Parents often urged newspapers and leaders to take
frightening or gross things out of the media.
• Because of this censorship Halloween lost most of its
superstitions, and it was no longer thought of as a religious
holiday.

11. Trick or Treat
• In the 1920s and 1930s trick or treating was a fairly violent
venture with a lot a vandalism and petty crime.
• By the 1950s leaders successfully limited these crimes and
Halloween was directed at young children because of the
recent baby boom.
• Trick or treating was revived and it was a relatively inexpensive
way for providing all the neighborhood children with treats.
• Today Americans spend $6 billion annually on just Halloween!
The only other holiday that Americans spend more on is
Christmas.

12. Today’s Traditions
• Trick or treating can be dated all the way back to the parades of All
Souls’ Day in England roughly 1000 A.D.
• Poor citizens would beg for food and they would be given “soul
cakes” and in return the poor citizens would pray for the family’s
dead relatives.
• The church used this as a way to replace the Celtic way of leaving
food and wine for roaming spirits.
• The practice was eventually taken up by children and it was called
“going a-souling” who would visit neighbors and be given food, ale,
or money.

13. Costumes and More Costumes!
• Costumes have both Celtic and European roots.
• During the winter people would be very afraid because of
low food, cold, and the longer nights.
• On Halloween when it was believed that souls came back
to Earth; people believed that souls would recognize them.
• To avoid this people would wear masks if they left their
homes after dark so the ghosts would think they were
spirits too.

14. Superstitions
• Halloween is filled with superstitions dating back to the Celtics.
• They believed that during Samhain friendly relatives’ souls would
come back so they would make a place for them at the table.
• They would also light candles down the roads to help guide them.
• Black cats bring us bad luck actually dates back to the Middle Ages
when it was believed witches would disguise themselves as black
cats.
• Egyptians believed that triangles were sacred and not to cross them
so we now avoid walking under ladders since. And it is very unsafe
to go under a ladder.

15. Forgotten Traditions
• Some Halloween traditions have long been forgotten.
• Young women would try to identify their husbands using
different methods to hopefully by married by next
Halloween.
• An Irish matchmaking cook would bury a ring in mashed
potatoes on Halloween night to bring true love to the one
that found it.
• In Scotland a woman would name suitors and write the
names on hazelnuts and tossed them in the fire. The one
that burned instead of popping would be her future
husband. (sometimes the opposite was true)

16. Forgotten Traditions (continued)
• If a woman ate a mixture of walnuts, hazelnuts, and
nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream of
her future husband.
• Young women would toss apple peals over their shoulders
and believed that the peals would spell out the initials of
their future husband.
• During parties the first successful apple-bobber would be
the first one to walk down the aisle.
• Halloween used to be quite the romantic holiday.

17. Conclusion
• Halloween can be traced back over 2000 years ago to the
Celts, and some traditions still hold to this day.
• The name Halloween comes from the word Alholowmesse
meaning All Saints’ Day.
• When Halloween finally made it to America with Irish
immigrants it had crime ridden beginnings.
• With the baby boom of the 1950s it evolved into the
Halloween we know today.

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