“When thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, though shalt not learn to do after the abomination of those nations,” (Deut. 18-9).

Halloween or ALL HALLOWS’ EVE, was originally a festival of fire for the dead and the powers of darkness and occured on the evening of 31 October. In addition, the night before the Christian festival of Hallows’ or ALL SAINTS DAY commemorates the saints and martyrs, and was first introduced in the 7th century. The date was changed from May 13 to November 1 in the following century, allegedly to coincide with and Christianize as a pagan festival of the dead. All Souls’ Day in the Roman Catholic calendar is November 2 and is marked by prayers for the souls of the dead.

Before the coming of Christianity, the pagan Celts in northern Europe held two great fire festivals each year. Beltane on the eve of May 1 and Samhain on the eve of November 1 which was to mark the beginning of summer and winter. These dates have no connection with the equinoxes or solstices, or with sowing and reaping, but seem to date from very early times when Celtic society depended heavily on cattle for subsistence. Samhain marked the beginning of winter and was the time when the cattle were brought in from pasture to spend the winter under cover in addition to being the beginning of a new year. Because the Celtic day started at sunset, and ran to the following sunset, the festival began on the eve of November 1.