10/31/2025
We have the Celts to thank for Halloween, the closest to modern day as we know it. They were people who lived in the areas of modern-day Ireland, northern France, and in the UK. Halloween’s pagan roots go back thousands of years to the Celtic Fire Festival of Samhain, which recognized the end of the harvest season and the start of their new year on November 1. During this festival, pagans wore costumes and lit fires to keep the bad spirits away. With the dark nights of winter representing death, the Celts believed that on October 31, the dead returned to walk among the living. By the 1950s Halloween became a holiday that was primarily for the children. Trick-or-treating was commonplace as kids went around their neighborhoods in costume collecting candy.