Halloween marks the start of the holiday season, and it’s getting many people very excited. From childhood to college, Halloween has been a staple celebration in most of our lives. However, a lot of people don’t even know where the holiday comes from and why we celebrate it.

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Larissa Hedderick, a freshman marketing major at Behrend, says that she’s been celebrating Halloween since she was little but isn’t sure where it originates from. Halloween actually originated from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain, which was mainly celebrated in areas where Celts originated in present-day Ireland, the UK, and northern France. Samhain was the mark of the end of the summer, and the beginning of a new year and new harvest.

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However, because their new year started November 1st, it was really marking the beginning of a dark and cold winter. To the Celts, this was associated with death. On this night of October 31st, the belief was that the boundary between the living and dead worlds blurred, and their celebration centered around the idea that ghosts of the dead returned to earth. This was such an exciting event for the Celts because they would predict the future based on the spirits. It seemed to bring them warmth and comfort for the start of the cold year.

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Today we’re used to celebrating with costumes and trick-or-treating, but the Celts celebrated with sacred bonfires to burn crops and sacrifice animals. While they did also wear some costumes, theirs consisted mainly of animal heads. Eventually, the Roman Empire conquered the majority of the Celtic area and Roman festivals were combined with Samhain. The Roman celebrated Feralia, which also took place in October and remembered the passing of the dead, which is the holiday they combined with Samhain and was known as All Saints Day.

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Additionally, the Romans celebrated the Roman goddess of fruit and trees which many believe to be the reason we bob for apples on Halloween. Although many religions and cultures were coming through that area, they would all consistently celebrate and commemorate the dead, according to History.com. Halloween finally got its name from the phrase “All Saints Day” because in Middle English it was translated to All-Hallowmas, which turned into All-Hallows Eve, then eventually Halloween.

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Many people believe that Halloween originated in America, but it actually took a long time until it came this way. When it did, it was adapted to cultural practices here. The beliefs from the European traditions blended with the beliefs in America, and an American version came about. It took awhile for the United States to get entirely caught up as it was first mostly celebrated in the south. When it was eventually widely accepted, traditions of play parties came about. This led to stories of the dead, dancing, and singing. America eventually would be filled with new immigrants, many being Irish, who helped popularize Halloween with their traditions as well. Americans eventually molded Halloween into a communal holiday for costumes, parties, candy and scary stories.