To avoid being possessed, on the night of October thirty first, the villagers would make their homes damp, dark, and undesirable, while dressing in the most frightening costumes. They would loudly parade around the neigborhood to frighten off the spirits and protect themselves. They would put out their housefires as well but some tribes did so to relight their fires for a common source, the druidic fire that was kept burning in the middle of Ireland. Some stories are told that burning people at the stake was common who were thought to be possessed as a lesson. Other accounts say they were only myths.

The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. In the first century AD, they refused to burn human sacrifices in favor of burning effiges. Over the course of time it became more ritualized.The practice of dressing up like witches, goblins, monsters, and ghosts took a more ceremonial role. Halloween was brought to america in the eighteen hundreds by irish immigrants.

Trick or Treating came from a European custom called souling. On November 2nd, all souls day, early christians would go village to village begging for soul cakes made of bread with currants. The more cakes a beggar received, the more prayers they would promise say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donars. At this time, people believed the dead remained in limbo for a time after death and a prayer could send them on to heaven.

The Jack-O-Latern comes from Irish folklore. The tale is told, a man named Jack who was a notorious drunk and trickster tricked the devil into climbing a tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree. According to the tale, after Jack died, he could not enter heaven because of his evil ways. But he could enter hell either because he had tricked the devil. so the devil gave him a ember to light his way through the darkness. It was placed in a hallow turnip to keep it glowing longer. But when immigrants came to America, they discovered pumpkins were much better so used them instead.

And though cults and satanic worshippers have adopted halloween as their holiday, it did not grow out of evil practices as you can see. It came from celebrating a new year and midieval prayer rituals of the Europeans.