The British Academy

What is Halloween?

About 2000 years ago, people called Celts lived in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Their new year didn’t begin on January 1st, it began on November 1st. So, October 31st was New Year’s Eve. Halloween has a pagan origin. The Celts worshipped the god of Death, Samhaim, and the Romans worshipped Pomona, the goddess of the Gardens and Orchards – that’s why Halloween colors are black and orange.
The Celts believed that ghosts and goblins and witches walked the Earth on October 31st. These spirits terrified the Celts, then the people dressed up in costumes, so the spirits wouldn’t recognize them.
When the Romans conquered the Celts, the traditions of the two different people were brought together, and some of them were combined.
For the Romans, November 1st was an important holy day called All Hallows. Eventually October 31st, the day before All Hallows, became known as All Hallows E’en (evening). And that is the day we celebrate as Halloween.

Trick or Treat

Many years later, in England, groups of farmers used to go from house to house to ask for food on October 31st. It was meant to bring good luck to the donators. This gave origin to the “trick or treat” tradition: groups of children dressed like witches and ghosts go from door to door to ask for sweets. If they do not get their treats, they play a trick “haunting” the people at the door.

Jack of the lantern

In Ireland, where Halloween began, the first jack-o’-lanterns weren’t made of pumpkins. They were made out of rutabagas, potatoes, turnips, or even beets! There is an old Irish legend about a man named Stingy Jack who was too mean to get into heaven and had played too many tricks on the devil to go to hell. When he died, he had to walk the earth, carrying a lantern made out of a turnip with a burning coal inside.
Sting Jack became known as “Jack of the Lantern” or “Jack-o’-lantern”.
From this legend came the Irish tradition of placing jack-o’-lanterns made of turnips and other vegetables in windows or by doors on Halloween.