--- title: What Is Samhain? Origin of Halloween Rooted in Pagan Holiday description: Few probably associate the lighthearted traditions of Halloween with their origins in Samhain, an ancient Celtic pagan festival. canonical: https://time.com/5434659/halloween-pagan-origins-in-samhain/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-30T14:30:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:04:29.297Z article:section: History og:title: How Halloween Traditions Are Rooted in the Ancient Pagan Festival of Samhain og:description: Here's what you need to know og:url: https://time.com/5434659/halloween-pagan-origins-in-samhain/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab2840ae0d4079e0/69893d788fd2eee8b335cf75/halloween-origins-celtic-pagan-festival-samhain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: The Festival Of Samhain Is Celebrated In Glastonbury og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Halloween Traditions Are Rooted in the Ancient Pagan Festival of Samhain twitter:description: Here's what you need to know twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab2840ae0d4079e0/69893d788fd2eee8b335cf75/halloween-origins-celtic-pagan-festival-samhain.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 video:duration: 01:37 video:published: 2014-10-27 section: history topics: Halloween origins, Celtic festival, harvest season, souls of the dead, costumes, door-to-door offerings, Christian missionaries, soul cakes, purgatory, turnip lanterns, pumpkins, trick-or-treating genre: explainer, documentary tones: curious, informative, eerie, neutral emotions: curiosity (medium), unease (low), nostalgia (low) sentiment: neutral audience: general public, history enthusiasts, Halloween fans, students organizations: Christian missionaries content_suitability: death [00:24-01:11] transcript_source: publisher captions transcript_reviewed: not applicable ---  # What Is Samhain? What to Know About the Ancient Pagan Festival That Came Before Halloween > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=b20559a1-7c45-4222-a8dc-2be681688fc4&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=b20559a1-7c45-4222-a8dc-2be681688fc4&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: See the Creepy Traditions That Created Halloween [Watch (HLS stream): See the Creepy Traditions That Created Halloween](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/cag1kbVq.m3u8) (1:37)  _Published 2014-10-27. See the Creepy Traditions That Created Halloween_ Description, summary, key points, chapters, key quotes, questions and transcript, where present, were produced automatically from the video or its captions and were not reviewed. ## Summary The video explores the origins of Halloween, tracing it to an ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest and the start of winter. It describes beliefs about the dead returning and the costumes and offerings used to appease or disguise them. It then covers how Christian missionaries transformed the rituals in the 13th century, including soul cakes and prayers for the dead, and how turnip lanterns gave way to pumpkins after the holiday reached North America. ## Key points - The true origin of Halloween is still shrouded in mystery, though it is linked to an old Celtic festival. (00:00) - The Celtic festival marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, the darker half of the year. (00:17) - People believed the souls of the dead returned during the festival to wreak havoc on crops unless appeased through offerings and rituals. (00:24) - During the Celtic festival, people dressed in costume to imitate the dead spirits and went door to door reciting verses for food offerings. (00:31) - When Christian missionaries arrived in the 13th century AD, the festival became a day to pray for the dead so spirits in purgatory could reach heaven. (00:46) - Costumes were later worn to disguise people from dead spirits seeking vengeance against their human enemies. (01:04) - Observers carved hollowed-out turnips with candles to ward off evil spirits. (01:11) - Turnips were replaced by pumpkins in North America because pumpkins were easier to carve and native to the continent. (01:18) ## Chapters - [00:00 to 00:15] Uncertain origins of Halloween. The narration notes that Halloween's true origin is unclear and introduces its link to a Celtic festival. - [00:15 to 00:31] The Celtic harvest festival. The festival marked the end of harvest and beliefs about the dead returning to harm crops. - [00:31 to 00:46] Costumes and door-to-door offerings. People dressed as the dead and collected food offerings while reciting verses. - [00:46 to 01:04] Christian transformation of the rituals. Missionaries reshaped the festival into a day of prayer for the dead, with singing and soul cakes. - [01:04 to 01:37] Turnips, pumpkins and modern Halloween. Costumes and lanterns were used for protection, and pumpkins replaced turnips in North America. ## Key quotes - [00:00] narrator: "The true origin of Halloween is still shrouded in mystery." - [00:24] narrator: "That's when the souls of the dead were set to come back to life to wreak havoc on crops, unless of course they were appeased through offerings and rituals." - [00:46] narrator: "When Christian Missionaries came to change Keltic religious practices in the 13th century AD, those rituals evolved." - [01:18] narrator: "turnips were traded for pumpkins, which were easier to carve and native to the continent." ## Questions this video answers - What is the origin of Halloween? [00:00] - Why were the dead believed to return during the Celtic festival? [00:24] - How did Christian missionaries change Halloween traditions? [00:46] - Why did pumpkins replace turnips for Halloween in North America? [01:18] ## Content suitability - death [00:24-01:11]: Discusses souls of the dead returning, spirits seeking vengeance, and prayers for the dead in purgatory, presented historically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 30, 2018 2:30 PM UTC See the Creepy Traditions That Created Halloween  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Oct 30, 2018 2:30 PM UTC Dressing up in costumes and [trick-or-treating](http://time.com/4991828/halloween-trick-or-treating-history/) are popular Halloween activities, but few probably associate these lighthearted fall traditions with their origins in Samhain, a three-day ancient Celtic pagan festival. For the Celts, who [lived during the Iron Age](https://www.jstor.org/stable/25549797?seq=1#page%5Fscan%5Ftab%5Fcontents) in what is now Ireland, Scotland, the U.K. and other parts of Northern Europe, Samhain ([meaning literally, in modern Irish, “summer’s end”](https://www.etymonline.com/word/samhain)) marked the end of summer and kicked off the Celtic new year. Ushering in a new year signaled a time of both death and rebirth, something that was doubly symbolic because it coincided with the end of a bountiful harvest season and the beginning of a cold and dark winter season that would present plenty of challenges. According to historian Nicholas Rogers, author of [_Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night_](https://books.google.com/books/about/Halloween.html?id=Noou1gjBAkEC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp%5Fread%5Fbutton#v=onepage&q&f=false), Samhain was a “time of stock-taking and perhaps sacrifice” — including probably animal sacrifice — during which “pastoral communities \[prepared\] to survive the winter.” Rogers also notes that little is firmly known about the particulars of the holiday, since the limited sources available are either folkloric literature like the Celtic sagas and Roman authors who would have likely “trashed” the traditions of a culture with which they were often [in conflict](http://www.historynet.com/empire-vs-tribe-the-roman-empire-and-the-celts.htm). To understand what we do know about Samhain, it’s important to recognize how the structure of the year’s calendar affected the Celts’ religious practices. According to [_The Guardian_](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jul/29/paganism-part-3-wheel-year-dates), much of modern pagan practice is based on the wheel of the year, a major determining factor in Celtic worship. The Celtic year was divided into two halves — light and dark, which were delineated by two of their four annual fire festivals. In between, rituals or ceremonies were celebrated marking solstices (when night is either the shortest or longest) or equinoxes (when day and night are equal). Samhain, the fire festival that marked the beginning of the dark half of the year, is situated between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. [_Encyclopedia Britannica_](https://www.britannica.com/topic/Samhain) notes that, during this festival, the world of the gods “was believed to be made visible to humankind,” leading to supernatural tricks and trouble; ghosts of the dead and spirits from the Otherworld were also thought to return to the earth during Samhain. To appease deities during this time, sacrifices (generally of crops and animals) were burned in bonfires as a protective measure from from evil otherworldly beings and offerings were left out for other visiting mischievous spirits. Tricks and pranks were often played, but blamed on fairies and spirits during the three-day period when the line between the two worlds blurred. The spiritual undertones of the Samhain festival also lent themselves to looking to the future, an activity quite apropos to the start of the Celtic new year; [_History.com_](https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/samhain) notes that Druids, or Celtic priests, thought that “the presence of otherworldly spirits made it easier…to make predictions about the future.” At the bonfires of the festival, fortune-telling was done alongside sacrifices, and many participants also donned costumes, often masquerading as animals or beasts, in hopes of fooling spirits who might want to harm them. The practices of this fire festival evolved over time — most notably with the spread of Christianity and the Catholic church, by [43 A.D., following Rome conquering most of the Celtic lands](https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween). In Jack Santino’s [_Halloween in America: Contemporary Customs and Performances_](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1499461?mag=from-samhain-to-halloween&seq=5#metadata%5Finfo%5Ftab%5Fcontents)_,_ he explains how, during this time, many of Celtic traditions were reframed with a Christian narrative in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the pagan practices while spreading the new religion. That reframing created many of the Halloween traditions that people still participate in today. It was May 13 in the year 609 that Pope Boniface IV declared a celebration called All Saints’ Day, also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas in Middle English; the day before it was thus known as All-hallows’ Eve, as [_History.com_](https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween) explains. The festival was a day to honor Christian martyrs and saints. Later, in the mid-eighth century, Pope Gregory III strategically moved the celebration to November 1, coinciding with the time Samhain would have typically been held. The homage paid to martyrs and saints who passed closely paralleled the appeasement of ghosts of the dead during Samhain. The church’s capitalization on Samhain traditions didn’t end there, however; participants in the new version of the holiday celebrated in much the same manner as their Celtic forebears had — with bonfires and costumes that reflected the spiritual and otherworldly. The offerings of food and goods to protect themselves from spirits and ancestral ghosts became offerings of food and drink to the poor, displays of generosity and goodwill. And the tricks and pranks attributed to otherworldly and evil spirits manifested themselves in the spirit of the saints. Eventually, All-hallows’ Eve evolved into Halloween, becoming more popular in secular culture than All Saints’ Day. The pagan-turned-Christian practices of dressing up in costume, playing pranks and handing out offerings have evolved into popular traditions even for those who may not believe in otherworldly spirits or saints. However, whether Halloween celebrants know it or not, they’re following the legacy of the ancient Celts who, with the festival of Samhain, celebrated the inevitability of death and rebirth. ## Transcript [00:00] All Hallow's Eve, the holy evening. All Saint's [00:04] Eve. No matter what you call it, one thing is certain. The [00:09] true origin of Halloween is still shrouded in mystery. But [00:12] here's what we do know. Halloween is linked to an [00:15] [ MUSIC ] old Celtic festival called [ UNKNOWN ]. [00:17] [ MUSIC ] It marked the end of the harvest season and the [00:21] beginning of Winter, the darker half of the year. [ MUSIC ] [00:24] That's when the souls of the dead were set to come back to [00:27] life to wreak havoc on crops, unless of course they were [00:31] appeased through offerings and rituals. During the festival [00:35] people dressed in costume to imitate the dead spirit. And [00:38] went door to door reciting verses in exchange for food [00:42] offerings. When Christian Missionaries came to change [00:46] Keltic religious practices in the 13th century AD, those [00:50] rituals evolved. [ INAUDIBLE ] became a day to pray for the [00:53] death. So spirits stuck in purgatory could find their way into [00:57] heaven. People went door to door singing. Offering Bible [01:00] verses and collecting what's called soul cakes. People [01:04] still donned costumes but this time it was to disguise them [01:08] from dead spirits searching for vengeance against their [01:11] human enemies. For further protection observers filled [01:15] hollowed out turnips with candles to ward off evil spirits. But [01:18] once the holiday reached North America, turnips were [01:22] traded for pumpkins, which were easier to carve and native [01:25] to the continent. Historians have suggested this is the [01:29] origin for modern- day Halloween and trick- or- treating. [01:32] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5434659/halloween-pagan-origins-in-samhain/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5434659/halloween-pagan-origins-in-samhain/"},"headline":"What Is Samhain? 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