Overview
- Halloween’s roots trace to Samhain, a Celtic festival marking the shift to winter when people believed the boundary with the dead thinned.
- Pope Gregory III set All Saints’ Day on November 1 in the 8th century, recasting October 31 as All Hallows’ Eve, later shortened to Halloween.
- Irish and Scottish migrants carried their customs to North America in the 19th century, where they evolved into parades, costumes and door-to-door treats.
- The Jack O’Lantern tradition stems from the Stingy Jack legend and early lanterns carved from turnips, which became pumpkins in America due to availability.
- Regional variants persist such as Galicia’s Samaín, and parallels with Mexico’s Día de Muertos reflect later Christian syncretism rather than a direct lineage.