For thousands of years, different peoples have been celebrating various holidays and festivals in October. Halloween is one of the oldest holidays in the world. Its history goes back thousands of years, from the Celtic festival of Samhain, the Roman Day of Pomona (goddess of plants) and the Christian "All Saints' Day". It strangely combines the Celtic tradition of honoring evil spirits and the Christian tradition of worshiping all saints.

Today, from the ancient pagan holiday, amusing fascinating traditions remain. On the night of November 1, it is customary to dress in costumes of evil spirits and arrange masquerades. Behind these entertainments, the ancient meaning of Halloween is forgotten - a holiday of intriguing, mysterious and mythically significant.

Throughout Europe, this night marked the transition to winter. It was believed that at this time the souls of the dead visit their former homes to warm themselves by the fire. They roam around collecting donations of food and drink from the rest of the family. The souls of the dead could take on different guises - the evil ones inhabited animals. Along with them are other dark forces: demons, brownies, witches. All evil spirits come down to earth. In order not to become the prey of a dead shadow, people extinguished the hearths in their houses and dressed up as scarily as possible - in animal skins and heads, hoping to scare away evil spirits.

On that night, all barriers between our and the "other" worlds were removed, and the gates between them were opened. So Halloween is also an attempt to understand the connection between our world and the other world. Halloween night is a transition, a gateway from one world to another. The gate to winter, to the cold world, where all life dies, but at the same time prepares for rebirth, freeing itself from everything superfluous, like trees from foliage.

On the night of October 31 to November 1, the Druids gathered in oak groves on hilltops, lit bonfires and made sacrifices to evil spirits to propitiate them. It was believed that if you kindle a hearth from the coal of those fires in the morning, it will warm the house during the long winter and protect it from evil spirits.

It was also a time of predictions. Legend has it that on this night Samhain opens the gates to the past and the future. This is the time when a person can realize his place in eternity. What the druids were saying was an important life guide for the long winter. On the night of November 1, they usually guessed. Of course, girls were especially fond of fortune-telling. They tried to see their future husband by sitting in front of a mirror at midnight with an apple in their hand. A fallen candlestick was considered the worst omen.

At the beginning of N. e. The Romans occupied most of the Celtic lands. Over the 400 years that they spent in the territories of the Celts, not only the population, but also traditions mixed up: two Roman holidays merged with Samhain - Feralia (something like a day of commemoration of the dead) and a holiday in honor of the goddess of fruits and trees Pomona. Its symbol was an apple, and hence the Halloween tradition of playing with apples.

Around the 8th century, Christianity became the dominant religion where the Druids used to perform rituals. The Christian Church has made November 1 "All Saints' Day". This is the feast of those saints who do not have their own special day. On this day, it was supposed to glorify the saints and martyrs. The people "All Saints' Day" - All Saints' Day - called Allhallowmas (the mass of all Hallows), and the night before this day was called All Hallows Eve - "All Saints' Day Eve". This is where the name of the holiday - Halloween - came from.

Since then, in the celebration of Halloween, pagan mysticism has coexisted with Christian. In the year 1000, the church declared November 2 "All Souls' Day". On this day, it was supposed to commemorate not the saints, but the simple dead. The commemoration was arranged in the likeness of the Samhain festival - with large bonfires, processions and dressing up in costumes of angels and devils.

In the 19th century, immigrants from Ireland brought Halloween to America, where what we now call Halloween developed. Although the Irish retained elements of the beliefs of the Celts and Druids, but in the United States the customs of various European peoples mixed with Indian beliefs, and a proper American version of the holiday appeared. During the first Halloweens, performances, divination and dances were arranged, the harvest was celebrated, and terrible stories about the dead and ghosts were told.

At the end of the 19th century, attempts were made to turn Halloween into a public holiday, and many of the superstitious features of Halloween faded into history. The holiday became an event with processions, city competitions and concerts, although the violent youth with their acts of Halloween vandalism were not immediately pacified. They finished with hooligans only by the 50s, giving the holiday to children and reviving caroling. Since then, mummers have been going from house to house. And the most beloved autumn holiday of Americans has become exclusively popular.