Many people know Halloween as the fun holiday in October where everyone dresses up, decorates and gets candy. But that’s not exactly how it started out.

Around 2,000 years ago the Celts celebrated their new year Nov. 1. It marked the end of the harvest and summer and the beginning of a cold, dark winter and was the time most often associated with human death. The night before, Oct. 31, was known as a festival called Samhain. 

It was believed that during Samhain, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurry, and the ghosts of the dead returned to the world of the living. The Celts thought the presence of spirits made it easier for Druids, or Celtic priests,  to predict the future. So, during Samhain, the Druids would build huge bonfires and people would gather around, throwing in crops and animal sacrifices for the Celtic gods. People would wear costumes, normally made of animal heads and skins, to show each other’s fortunes. 

After the bonfire, everyone would return back to their homes and relight their fires from the sacred bonfire to protect themselves from the coming winter. 

By the time the holiday now known as Halloween reached the United States, it had gone through so many cultural changes and additions that it had become the fun and spooky candy filled night that many love to celebrate.