The Celts, who are known to have lived some 2,000 years ago, largely in the area now known as Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, commemorated their new year once every 1st November every year.
That day signified the end of summer and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was mostly associated with human death. Celts at that time believed that on the evening before the new year, the boundary between the earth of the living and the dead became dimmed. On the night of 31st October, they celebrated Samhain when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead came back to earth.
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To celebrate the event, Druids constructed large sacred bonfires, where the people assembled to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. Also, during the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, normally containing animal heads and skins, and strived to tell each other’s prosperity.
After the celebration, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had demolished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the next winter. And this is how the famous Halloween festivities started to date.
