Five Freaky Facts About Halloween

When we think of Halloween, images of ghosts, vampires and ghouls fill our minds. We also think of haunted houses and costume parties, trick-or-treating and carving pumpkins.

What we don’t think about is praying for the dead or animal sacrifices. And most of us probably don’t think about using spirits to predict the future.

But once upon a time, people did.

Read on to find out how Halloween has evolved into what it is today!

1. Halloween dates back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. Around 2,000 years ago, the Celts, who lived in what is now Ireland and the United Kingdom, celebrated their new year -- Samhain -- on Nov. 1.

They believed that on the night before the new year, the spirits of the dead returned to earth. The ghosts, they believed, would cause trouble like destroying crops and setting fires.

So, naturally, they made it a celebration.

2. Later, the same celebration mingled with All Hallows Eve. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory decided to honor the saints on Nov. 1. This was after the Romans took over most of the Celtic territory, so it was only natural that the two festivals would collide.

That said, the night before All Saints Day became known as All Hallows Eve, which later became Halloween.

Despite the best efforts of the Catholic Church, some remnants of Samhain remained as part of the festivities, including the belief that the dead would return on that night.

Which leads right into…

3. People began wearing costumes on Halloween out of fear. As stated, the belief stuck that ghosts could return to the earthly realm on Oct. 31. And people in the Middle Ages were terrified of the dark.

They believed that if they left the house after dark, they might run into a ghost or two. So, they would wear masks at night in an attempt to disguise themselves from the real thing! But why would they go out after dark?

Because…

4. Trick-or-treating actually began as begging. In medieval times, poor people would go “souling” on Nov. 1, which was the eve of All Souls’ Day on Nov. 2. People who went "souling" would pray for the souls of the dead in return for food.

Eventually this practice was limited to just children, and even later the food (or sometimes money) was replaced with sweet treats. If only they still gave out money, I’d still be trick-or-treating.

5. Today’s Halloween is much scarier than the celebrations of yesteryear. In modern times, Halloween is all about monsters and horror and spooky stuff. But really, the ghosts that were celebrated during Samhain and All Hallows Eve were the spirits of loved ones and friends.

The fear part came about because of the Celtic belief that the lines between the spirit world and this world became blurred on Oct. 31. If spirits could come here, then that meant that people could be transported there, and the idea of death was much scarier than any ghost could be.

Happy Halloween!

Contributor’s note: Information provided by history.com.