This was likely an effort by the Church to change a traditional, and entrenched, 'pagan' holiday into something the Church could tolerate better. Pope Gregory III in the 8th century expanded the festival to include 'all saints' as well as all martyrs, and moved All Saints Day from May 13 to November 1.

In 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to all Christian martyrs, establishing the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day. So the Celts would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off evil spirits and ghosts.Īfter the invasion and Roman conquest, around 47 AD, Samhain merged with 2 Roman festivals, one of which was Feralia, a day towards the end of October when Romans commemorated the their dead. They also believed that on the night before the new year (i.e 31 October), the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped. The Celts associated the bleakness of winter (e.g bare forests) with human death. Samhain, was celebrated on their new year on November 1.The festival marked the end of summer and the time of harvesting crops, but it also meant the beginning of increasing dark, and cold as winter arrived.

Halloween's origins spring from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, practiced over 2000 years ago by the Celts living in the areas now known as Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France.

Forge of empires fandom 2019 halloween