Halloween 2020: History and Significance of the Celtic Festival to Remember the Dead

The Celts thought that the presence of spirits gave the opportunity to the Celtic priests to make predictions about the future. These prophecies were a crucial source of comfort during the long, dark winter for the ancient people.

To commemorate the event, Celtic Priests built sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. The Celts wore costumes like animal heads and skins, and attempted to read each other’s fortunes.

With colonisation, the tradition of Halloween went to America where beliefs of European ethnic groups were combined with that of American Indians. A new kind of Halloween came into being where public events to celebrate the harvests were held. People would collect to narrate stories and share their traditions. With time, Halloween became a day of activities which we now know as trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns and dressing up in costumes.