Being a Brief History of Hallowe’en
Todd H. C. Fischer
Appeared in The TankArd #35 (October 2001)

The holiday we now celebrate as Hallowe’en has a long history, stretching back to the time of the Ancient Celts. For them, the evening of October 31, and morning of November 1, was the beginning of their new year. They called it Samhain (or Samhuinn, pronounced sow-en) and it was (primarily) a celebration of the dead. (In Ireland, it was Oiche Shamhna.) As the new year began with winter, a season of death, it was only natural that the Celts would honour (and ward off) those that had already passed on.
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