Halloween is the perfect time to dress up in your favorite outfit and get ready for an exciting night of treats! Do you know how Halloween started?

Some believe that Halloween was created by the Christian church to replace pagan holidays like Samhain (the festival of endings). Others say it started as a way for people in Ireland, Scotland and Wales to celebrate their Celtic heritage.

About 2,000 years ago, the Celts inhabited a vast area from England and Ireland to northern France. They are known as a farming and agricultural people who define years by their growing seasons.

The word Samhain translates as ‘end of summer’. The Celts celebrated their festival on November 1, marking the change of seasons when the harvest ended and winter began.

While the winter season slowly turns the green world to brown, the coldest months of the year begin and all the plants gradually wither and disappear. The ancient Celts associated this transitional period with death. While nature was dying around them, the Celts believed that the border between our world and the Other World reached its thinnest point during this period. First a huge bonfire was lit, then crops and animals were sacrificed.

The Celts believed that the best celebration of the festival determined the outcome of the months ahead. The purpose was to please the gods. If the gods liked the sacrifices and the food offered, they would bless the village and the harvest of the year so that the next year the harvest would be more abundant.

Some of the Celtic pagan traditions were used as a way to facilitate the conversion process. As Christianity spread, the first Church in England began to Christianize the ancient Celtic holidays. With the changes that have occurred in the intervening centuries, today’s Halloween has emerged.