Halloween. When most hear the spooky holiday name images of intriguing costumes, bags of candy, haunted houses and trails enter their mind. But, have you ever wondered where or how it all started?

Halloween is  actually a mixture of christian, Celtic, and Roman culture. About the year 43 AD two Roman festivals were combined with the Celtic Samhain festival. The roman festival Feralia which commemorated the passing of the dead and the roman festival of Pomona which honored the goddess of trees and fruit. The symbol of Ponoma is the apple, the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples practiced today

“Halloween” meaning “hallowed evening” or “holy evening” first began about 2000 years ago. Known to some cultures as: All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints Eve. (Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain pronounced “sah-win”) According to halloweenhistory.org The ancient Celts believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops.To Celebrate Samhain, the Druids sat around a fire dressed up in costumes consisting of animal heads and skins and told each other’s futures.

Dressing up and bobbing for apples, the meaning of Halloween has definitely changed over the many years but the celebration remains the same.