Next to Christmas, Halloween is the most commercialized celebration in the United States and Canada. This ancient festival originated far from North America however, and centuries before the first European set foot on the continent.

The ancient Druids 督伊德教(古代高盧人與不列顛人的.一種宗教)的教徒 who inhabited what we now call Great Britain placed great importance on the passing of one season to the next, holding “Fire Festivals” which were celebrated for three days (two days on either side of the day itself)。

One of these festivals was called Samhain (pronounced Sha-Von) and it took place on October 31 through to November 1. During this period, it was believed that the boundaries between our world and the world of the dead were weakened, allowing spirits of the recently dead to cross over and possess the living.

In order to make themselves and their homes less inviting to these wayward spirits, the ancient Celts(凱爾特人)would douse (插入水中, 把弄熄, 弄濕)all their fires. There was also a secondary purpose to this, after extinguishing all their fires, they would re-light them from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning at Usinach, in the Middle of Ireland.

Samhain was considered to be a gateway not only from the land of the dead to the land of the living, but also between Summer and Fall/Winter. For the Druids, this was the last gasp (喘息, 氣喘)of summer (it was also the Celtic New Year), so therefore they made sure it went out with a bang before they had to button down (把…弄清楚)for the winter ahead.

They would dress up in bizarre costumes and parade through their villages causing destruction in order to scare off any recently departed souls who might be prowling (巡游)for bodies to inhabit, in addition to burning animals and other offerings to the Druidic deities(神, 神性)。 It is also a popular belief that they would burn people who they believed to be possessed, but this has largely been debunked (揭穿, 拆穿假面具, 暴露)as myth.

This yearly festival