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History

The name "Halloween" is a corruption of the phrase "All Hallows Eve" which indicates the day before November 1st, "All Hallows" or "All Saints" Day a celebration of the Roman Catholic church instigated in 835AD to celebrate all the saints who didn’t have a day of their own.

However the tradition goes back much further than that, the earliest known record of it is in the fifth century BC among the Irish Celts. They divided their year according to an agricultural calendar which made what is now 31st October the last day of their year.

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The new cycle of the year was a mystical time and it was considered that the barrier between the earthly world and the spirit world became thin and evil spirits could cross over and possess the living.

To dissuade the spirits the living would extinguish their fires, dress up in ghoulish costumes and behave destructively.

The extinguishing of the fires may also have been related to relighting their fires from the common mystical source at Usinach in the heart of Ireland.

These practices spread throughout the Celtic lands. When the Romans invaded they absorbed these practices and added their own including the goddess Pomona (of fruit and trees). Her symbol is the apple, which may explain the bobbing for apples on Halloween.