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The word Halloween comes from the ancient Celtic expression All Hollows Eve, that is: the night before the Day of the Dead.
The Celtic people lived in the areas which are now Great Britain and Northern France more than 2,000 years ago.
November 1 was considered New Year’s Day, among the Celts and this holiday was calledSamhain, honouring Samhain who was the lord of the dead and of the cold, dark winter season.
The Celts believed that on All Hollows Eve night the spirits of all those who had died come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. So they built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices; and dressed up in scary costumes and run through the streets holding torches and making noise to confuse the spirits.
Halloween is an old tradition in Ireland and Scotland. In those countries, people dressed up and carried lanterns made of turnips. When people moved from Ireland and Scotland to the United States in the 1840’s, they started using pumpkins because there were no turnips in The United States. This is where the Jack O’Lantern tradition comes from.
