Halloween is celebrated on October 31st every year. It is now one of the biggest holidays in the country with around 70% of the US celebrating it each year with costumes, candy and many decorations. With a long history that dates back thousands of years evolving and changing throughout the time.
Halloween can be traced back to the Celtics from the festival of Samhain, around 200 A.D. The celebration would take place on the 1st of November, which on the Celtic calendar is the start of the new year, in the territory that is now known as Ireland and the UK. They were celebrating the end of the harvest and the start of winter and the cold weather. The Celtics also believed that on October 31, spirits would return to the earth for a day and would destroy the harvest.
When the Romans took over the Celtic territories around the time of 43 A.D, they combined the festivals of Samhain and two other festivals: the domains of the Feralia, which was to honor the dead, and Pomona, a celebration of the harvest. The end of the harvest was when they knew that winter was coming, so the night before November 1st, became known as All Hallows’ Eve, which eventually evolved into the name Halloween.
When Halloween came west it was brought over by mostly the new Irish settlers around the 19th century. In the early days of the United States, many did not celebrate and it was less of a commercialized event that it is today. Trick or treating is said to have evolved from the medieval European custom of “souling,” where poor people would go door to door offering
The 20th century has brought a different version of Halloween then how it first started. It is one of the bigger holidays and is very commercialized. The new way of decorating and trick or treating for all ages is common in most of the areas in the country.