The Origins Of Halloween -listening

The Origins of Halloween

1. What does Samhaim mean? Summer’s end 2. What did the druids try to foretell? They foretold if the villagers would survive the winter. 3. Why did the Celts light bonfires and disguise themselves? To repel and confuse the spirits. 4. What did Pope Gregory III establish? Why? He established All Hallows Day because he wanted to distract the Celts from their pagan practices 5. What event brought the Irish to America in the mid 19th century? A potato famine. 6. What did the traditional Celtic bonfires and demonic disguises turn into in America? Jack-o-lanterns and modern day’s sinister costumes. 7. What are the origins of trick-or-treating? It is believed that it comes from a tradition called souling in which the poor went from home to home praying for the souls of each family’s dead in exchange for small cakes.