halloween

Many of the anciet peopleof europe marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter by celebreting a holiday in late autumn. the most important of these holidays that influence later halloween customs was samhain. A holiday observed by the ancient celts. A tribal people who inhabited most of western and central europe in the first millennium BC. among the celts, samhain marked the end of the year and the beginning of the next. It was the one of four celtic holidays linked to important transition in the anual cycle of season.
Samhain began at sundown on October 31 and extended inti the following day. According to the pagan religion, knows as Druidism, the spirits of those who had died in the preceding year roamed the earth on samhain evening. The celts sought to ward off these spirits with offerings of food and drink. bonfires at sacred hilltop stter and performed rituals. Often involving human and animal sacrifices. To honor druid deitses.
In Britain, romans blended local samhain customs with their own pagan harvest festifal honoring pamona, goddess of fruit trees. some schoolars suggested that the game of bobbing for applies derives from this roman association of the holiday with fruit.
In British folklore, small magical begins knows as fairies became associated with halloween himchief. The jack-o-lantern originally carved from a large turnip rather than a pumpkin, originated in medieval scotland. various methods of predicting the future, especially conserning matters of romance and marriage, were also prominent features of halloween throughout the British isles.
Between 15th and 17th centuries, Europe was seized by a hysterical fear of witches, leading to the persecution of thousands of innocent women. Witches were thought to ride flying brooms and to assume the form of black cats. These images of witches soon joined other European superstitions as symbols of halloween.