What a crazy idea! Get dressed up in costumes, scare people, carve pumpkins, go door to door asking for treats! How did this craziness get started? Well, the Celts celebrated their new year on November 1st.
That day marked the end of the harvest and summer and the beginning of winter, which was often associate with death.
The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundaries between the living and the dead were blurred, and the dead would return to earth.
These spirits destroyed crops and frightened people.
To protect themselves, the Celts built bonfires where they sacrificed crops and animals to the gods.
The people dressed in costumes and believed that they could tell fortunes on October 31st, or Samhain.
Later the Catholic church declared All Saints Day and All Souls Day around the same time.
This is widely believed to be an attempt to replace a pagan holiday with a Christian one.
The poor would go from door to door receiving food in return for prayers for the dead.
As the years went on, other traditions became attached to Halloween.
Although people had carved lanterns out of a variety of vegetables for a long time, a scary tale about Stingy Jack became the reason that Jack-O-Lanterns were associated with Halloween.
Now Halloween is the second most commercial holiday in the U.
S.
We spend money on costumes, fog machines and candy.
In cities across America, you'll find whole stores that open up just for the two months prior to Halloween.