Halloween originated in the 8th century during the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.

was celebrated on the 31st of October, into the 1st of November, the Celtic New Year. The boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead were blurred during these hours, and people believed ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

People lit bonfires and wore costumes and masks to ward off the roaming ghosts.

Later, Pope Gregory III designated the 1st of November as a time to honor all saints, calling it All Saints' Day, or All Hallows'.

All Saints' Day came to incorporate a few traditions of Samhain and the evening before was known as All Hallow's Eve, and later, Halloween.

Halloween beliefs spread to America, yet the celebration of it was limited in colonial New England, due to the rigid protestant beliefs.

It was not until the second half of the 19th century when America was flooded with immigrants, especially the Irish fleeing the potato famine that the celebration of Halloween in American began. Cultures meshed, and neighbors of various ethnicities would host parties in celebration of the harvest. These parties included ghost stories, fortune tellings, and song and dance.

A distinctive American Halloween emerged, becoming nationally celebrated. Americans began dressing in costumes and paraded house-to-house, asking for money and food. This tradition eventually evolved into modern-day trick-or-treating.

In the late 1800s to the 1930s, newspaper editors and community leaders encouraged the removal of "frightening" Halloween. The holiday soon lost its superstition and religious overtones, but became a community-centered event. Halloween evolved into a day of kid-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating, hay rides, and corn mazes.