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Trick-or-treat: 9 spooky facts about Halloween

By Kelly Healey
By Kelly Healey
It’s the time of year when many Americans play dress-up, eat candy and celebrate all things strange and unusual. But where did Halloween come from? We’ve gathered some facts about the intriguing holiday.
1.- Halloween descends from the celebration of Samhain (SAH-win), the Celtic New Year observed between the sunsets of Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.
2.- Samhain eve, or Halloween, was considered the death of another year, and spirits were believed to walk the earth as the doorways between our world and the spirit world were open.
3.- The Celts began the Halloween tradition of wearing costumes and wore animal skin to hide themselves from spirits. Some wore masks or blackened their faces to impersonate deceased ancestors.
4.- The disguised Celts are believed to have gone from house to house, acting silly in exchange for food and drink.
5.- Christian leaders transformed Samhain, and in the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV decreed Nov. 1 All Saints' Day, or All Hallows' Day.
6.- The church continued the celebrations, and observed the night before Samhain with bonfires, costumes and parades, but it was all rebranded with a new name: All Hallows' Eve, which later became "Halloween."
7.- European immigrants brought Halloween to the United States. The celebration gained steam in the 1800s with the explosion of Irish immigration to the United States.
8.- According to History.com, the practice of decorating jack-o'-lanterns originated in Ireland, where large turnips and potatoes served as early canvasses. 
9.- The name jack-o'-lantern comes from an Irish folktale about a man named Stingy Jack.
(Read more about Stingy Jack here)
(Source: National Geographic | History.com)

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