Halloween: The Celts and the Festival of Samhaim

We celebrate Halloween every year on October 31st, but where does this holiday come from?

Halloween originally comes from a people called the Celts. The Celts lived in Western Europe more than 2,500 years ago. The Celts were the same group of people who built stonehenge. They were a very mystical people and commonly referred to as pagans.

The Fall was a very scary and worrisome time of the year for the Celts. The Celts did not have the understanding of the world and the universe like we do today, and when the days started getting shorter and the weather got colder, this would cause a lot of fear in people who didn’t understand this was the normal process of the Earth. In order to put some understanding to this fearful time of the year, the Celts attributed the darkness and cold to spirits and ghosts who were walking the Earth.

The Celts did not call October 31st Halloween, but rather the Festival of Samhain. This holiday marked the end of summer and the beginning of Fall and Winter.

Samhain is the Celt Lord of the Dead, just like in Ancient Egyptian there was Anubus, in Islam there is Azrael, in Hindu there is Yama, and in Ancient Greece there was Hades.