Origins of Halloween

The Blog Frog wishes you and yours a very Happy Halloween. But first, here's a little known fact (or two) about the origin of Halloween.

Samhain, End of Summer, was a Pagan festival celebrated in Ireland more than a thousand years ago. When Irish immigrants came to North America in the 19th Century, they called their holiday in English All Hallows' Even'. This became All Hallows' Eve and was then shortened to Hallowe'en which later became just Halloween. While Samhain was recognition of the coming of winter, and a hope the harvest was plentiful enough to last all winter, the Celts also believed that on that day the boundary separating the dead from the living became blurred. This later led (in the 20th Century) to the North American tradition of dressing up or "guising" to confuse the spirits.

In closing, here's hoping you got lots of treats, and nobody played too many tricks on you!