Halloween: All you need to know

Halloween [iStockphoto]

Halloween is here with us. Celebrated on October 31, this spooky holiday sees some people making elaborate plans while others choose not to partake. Halloween has fascinating origins that trace back over 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celtic people, who lived in present-day Ireland, Northern France, and the United Kingdom, marked their new year on November 1, a day symbolizing the end of summer and the harvest season. This cherished day also represented the onset of the dark, cold winter.

The Celts believed that on October 31, the boundary between the world of the living and the dead blurred, allowing spirits and ghosts to cross over and roam freely. To honor these departed souls, they would wear scary costumes-often made of animal heads and skins-light huge bonfires, and gather to predict each other's fate.