Halloween, or All Hallows Eve, in its original form is an ancient Celtic religious celebration that welcomed the harvest. People feasted and partied and in order to cautiously ward off ghosts, they lit bonfires and wore costumes to scare them away.

The advent of Christianity meant that elements of the ancient harvest festival were frowned on and the early church decided to incorporate it into the new November 1 All Saints Day, which was meant to eventually replace Samhain.

But things got a little muddled. “Halloween” is derived from All Hallows Eve, the name given to the evening before November 1, which is when Christians are to recognise and venerate the hallowed or consecrated and holy saints. Except things didn’t completely go that way.

The Samhain traditions remained largely untouched, regardless of Pope Gregory’s long-ago efforts back in AD 1000 to replace the celebration with a Christian one.

Most people don’t realise that the name “Halloween” is the shortened form of a Christian religious observance meant to overtake and eventually remove the old Samhain beliefs and practises, but Samhain lives on and the religious importance of November 1 has often been forgotten.

Happy Tuesday; happy Samhain. 🎃