The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a corruption o
f All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hallows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honour of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
According to the Celts the dead would return to find a body in which they could live another year. Obviously no one wanted to be possessed. So in that evening, the villagers would try to frighten the spirits away by putting out the fires in their houses to make them cold and unwelcoming, dress in the most frightening way and act in the wildest way possible.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village
begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants. The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
