Halloween 2026 Countdown

Halloween originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. The tradition was brought to America by Irish immigrants in the 19th century and has since evolved into one of the most popular holidays in the US. Today, Halloween is celebrated with costume parties, haunted houses, trick-or-treating, and pumpkin carving. It is the second-largest commercial holiday in America after Christmas.

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Halloween traces its roots back 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced 'sow-in'). The Celts, who lived in what is now Ireland, the UK, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1st — the day that marked the end of summer and the harvest, and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. They believed that on the night before the new year (October 31st), the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred.

During Samhain, the Celts lit huge sacred bonfires and wore costumes, typically made of animal heads and skins, to disguise themselves from the roaming spirits. They also left food outside their doors to appease these ghosts — the earliest form of trick-or-treating. Celtic priests called Druids would gather around the bonfires to make predictions about the future, and people would try to tell each other's fortunes.

When the Romans conquered Celtic territory in 43 AD, they brought their own festivals. Feralia, a day in late October to commemorate the passing of the dead, merged with Samhain. The Roman festival of Pomona, honoring the goddess of fruit and trees, also contributed — the bobbing for apples tradition comes from Pomona's symbol, the apple.

Halloween came to America in the 1800s with Irish and Scottish immigrants. Early American Halloween involved community celebrations of the harvest, sharing ghost stories, and pranking. Trick-or-treating became widespread in the 1920s and 1930s, though it was interrupted by sugar rationing during WWII. The phrase 'trick or treat' first appeared in print in 1927 in Alberta, Canada.