Halloween tradition began originated from the ancient Celtic festival of ‘Samhain’ (pronounced Sow-in), where people would light bonfires and dress up in costumes usually made of animal heads and skin to ward off ghosts.
The Samhain who lived 2,000 years ago before they were conquered by the Roman Empire in 43 A.D, who is now known as Ireland people of the United Kingdom chose a day to mark the end of Summer and harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of the year often associated with human death.
The celts believed that the boundary between the living and the dead becomes blurred around October 31, so the Samhains celebrates the day they believe the ghost of the dead returns to earth. But after they were majorly dominated by the Roman Empire, the Romans adopted and celebrated two festivals in which the first is known as ‘The Feralia’ a day in late October to commemorate the passing of the dead and the second is a day to honour Pomona, the goddess of fruits and trees.
The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this into the Samhains tradition probably explains the tradition of bobbing apples that is commonly practised today on Halloweens.
Around the eighth or Ninth Century when Christianity began to spread around Europe, the All Saints Day was moved from May 13th to November 1 by Pope Gregory III to celebrate the death of dead saints and the evening before the All Saints Day, Christians do things similar to the Samhains tradition by lighting up big bonfires, parades and wearing of costumes as Saints, Angels and devils.
All Saint’s Day was also called Allhallows or All-hallows (from middle English Alholowmesse, meaning All Saint’s Day) and a night before it, the traditional Celtic region began to call it All-Hallows Eve and eventually Halloween.
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