Halloween is a holiday, celebrated each year on October 31, that has roots in age-old European traditions. It originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. “The Celts believed that the dead could walk among the living at this time. During Samhain, the living could visit with the dead.” In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints; soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Some of the Celts wore ghoulish costumes so that wandering spirits would mistake them for one of their own and leave them alone. Others offered sweets to the spirits to appease them. In medieval Europe, the Catholic clergy adopted local pagan customs and had their followers go from house to house wearing costumes and requesting small gifts. Halloween jack-o’-lanterns started when supplicants moved from door to door asking for food in return for a prayer for the dead, and they would carry hollowed-out turnip lanterns, whose candle indicated a soul trapped in purgatory. Others say that the lanterns were used to ward off evil spirits. During the 1800’s in North America, pumpkins replaced turnips because they were plentiful as well as easy to hollow out and carve. The beliefs behind this custom—the immortality of the soul, purgatory, and prayers for the dead.