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Why were bonfires significant during the original Samhain celebrations?
History lesson
How ancient traditions shaped the Halloween we celebrate today
Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31st. It started hundreds of years ago with an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain. People in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France believed that on this night, spirits could cross into our world. To scare away these spirits, people lit bonfires and wore costumes made from animal skins.
Over time, Halloween changed. When Christianity spread, November 1st became All Saints’ Day, a day to honor saints. The night before was called All Hallows’ Eve, which later became Halloween. People started to carve faces into turnips and, later, pumpkins. This is how the jack-o’-lantern tradition began.
Today, Halloween is known for costumes, trick-or-treating, and spooky decorations. Kids dress up as ghosts, superheroes, or their favorite characters and go door to door asking for candy. Many people also watch scary movies or visit haunted houses. Halloween is now a fun and popular holiday in the United States, Canada, and many other countries.
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Did you know?
The surprising Irish roots of Halloween
The tradition of carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns comes from an Irish legend about a man named Stingy Jack. Originally, people in Ireland and Scotland carved faces into turnips or potatoes and placed them in windows to ward off evil spirits. When immigrants brought the custom to America, they found that pumpkins, native to the continent, were larger and easier to carve. Today, jack-o’-lanterns are a bright and spooky symbol of Halloween celebrations across the United States.
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