Everything you need to know about Halloween - including its history

Halloween is a beloved time of year for many reasons - costumes, scary movies, sweet treats like toffee apples and more.

But where does the day come from and why did we start celebrating it?

This is what you need to know.

Where does Halloween come from - and when is it?

It’s believed that Halloween is descended from the festival of Samhain, a Gaelic celebration which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, or the darker period of the year.

Observers believed that it was during this time that the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead became thin and blurred. A similar idea is also believed in regards to the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, which also tends to occur in October and has people saying prayers for the dead.

During the Samhain celebrations, great bonfires would be lit and loud drums would be played in order to guide visitors from the underworld. The Celts would wear costumes in order to ward off any malevolent spirits.

With the influence of the Roman empire taking over Great Britain and much of Europe, the Samhain festival gradually got mixed in with the Roman celebrations of Feralia.

The Feralia celebrations also honoured the dead, and Pomona, which paid tribute to the goddess of fruits and trees.

Pope Gregory III, in the eighth century, declared 1 November to be a day on which all the saints and martyrs would be honoured, which came to be known as All Saints Day.

The day before All Saints Day was known as All Hallows Eve, as hallows means a saint or a holy person, which later evolved into Allhalloween and then eventually Halloween.

Halloween takes place every year on 31 October, and in 2021 it falls on a Sunday.