as part of the Catholic Church’s effort to Christianize the old pagan festival. The eve of All Saints’ Day, known as All Hallows’ Eve, was shortened to Halloween, and some of Samhain’s ...

However, the origins of Halloween can be traced back to the pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced Sow-in), first celebrated by the Celts of ancient Europe. In this tradition, 1 November marked the ...

Not Halloween as we know it, but many of the customs we practise today evolved from this Pagan festival. Pronounced ‘sow-en’, Samhain is a Gaelic holiday beckoning the ‘darker half’ of the ...

It is that time of the year when the secular society in which we live is preparing for the festival of Halloween ... and anger of Samhain would be unleashed through a system of "tricks," i.e. curses.