Many people associate Halloween with evil. With death. With spooky happenings that cannot be explained by conventional scientific means. What most people don't realize is that Halloween is the "Christianized" version of a much older feast day.

Halloween didn't come into being until Christianity came to the British Isles. Up until that time, October 31 was known as Samhain (pronounced sow-in or sah-vin). In a Celtic year, everything is cyclical. Birth inevitably leads to death and in turn leads again to rebirth. A sacred circle so to speak. Samhain is the beginning and end of the year. A day when the harvest is finished, the leaves are turning to golds and reds preparing the trees for their "death". It is a sacred day where the spirits of ancestors are remembered and honored.

Ancestors were very important to ancient Celtic people. They believed that the spirits of their ancestors watched over them from the Otherworld, and aided them in times of need. So Samhain was a day set aside not only to celebrate a good harvest, but to honor the spirits of their ancestors for their help during the year.

Bonfires were lit across the countryside, and nuts and berries were burned in the fire as offerings to the gods. This was also a perfect time to consult with the local seers as this is also a time when the veil between this world and the next is thin. A time when the honored ancestors can in effect walk among the living. This is what probably gave rise to the folk tales of ghosts walking most actively on Halloween.

Another traditional Samhain ritual was to leave either a place setting at the dinner table, or to leave offerings outside the door for these spirits. Anyone who did not, would anger the spirits by not showing the proper respect for their ancestors, bringing bad luck to them for the coming year. Likely this is where the "trick-or-treat" tradition came into being. Early Christian priests from other lands would not have understood this tradition and would believe they were leaving food outside for pranksters or children.

Christians were the first to call this feast day "Halloween" or All Hallow's Eve. Wanting to convert the pagans of the land to their religion, it was easier to acclimate their feast days into the Christian religion rather than alienate them altogether by forbidding them.

So the next time you're told that Halloween is an "evil" holiday, or that it goes against the Christian tradition, tell them that it was Christians who set the holiday up in the first place.