Halloween is celebrated on Oct. 31 each year.
It’s a tradition believed to have begun about 2,000 years ago, by the Celts in what is now Ireland and Britain. They called the day Samhain, when the spirits of the dead were believed to return to the land of the living.
The Celts would light bonfires and wear costumes, to scare off ghosts – but as Christianity spread, Samhain was replaced by All Hallow’s Eve, or Hallowe’en.
When western Europeans immigrants came to America, they brought their religious beliefs and traditions with them, while adapting to the new land. Instead of jack-o-lanterns made out of turnips, they used pumpkins – but they still played games of divination, danced and sang, and dressed in costumes, going house to house to ask for food and money.
Sometimes the “guisers” in costume represented the souls of the dead; sometimes, the spirits of winter. It was considered good luck to give the visitors food – and bad luck to refuse them. They might play tricks.
The traditions became widespread in North America, especially the wearing of costumes, and what became known as ‘trick-or-treating.’
Halloween is celebrated in many countries around the world, with very different traditions.
In Mexico, Halloween coincides with Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) - a three-day celebration to honour the dead, who are thought to return to their homes to be with their loved ones. Many families will build an altar to honor deceased relatives, decorating it with flowers, candy, and pictures. They prepare a feast of their relatives’ favorite foods and drinks, and provide fresh water for the spirits to wash up before they join the feast.
The tradition of Dia de los Muertos actually predates Halloween - inspired by practices in pre-Columbian MesoAmerica, according to historians, at least 3,000 years ago.
Here, we celebrate Halloween with costume parties, trick-or-treating, games, and scary haunted houses – a time for thrills, chills and candy.
