Dalla Redazione del TGTassoNews  – Perhaps not everyone knows that Halloween has very ancient origins. Halloween corresponds to Samhain, the Irish Celtic New Year. From Ireland, the tradition was exported to the United States by emigrants in the 19th century. The name Halloween derives from the contracted form of All Hallows’ Eve, where Hallow is the archaic English word meaning Holy, therefore “the eve of all Hallows”. For the Celts, the new year did not begin on January 1st as it does for us today, but on November 1st, when the hot season officially ended and the season of darkness and cold began. The transition from summer to winter and from the old to the new year was celebrated with a long festival called Samhain. The Celts believed that on the eve of each new year, October 31st, a passage opened between the world of the living and the dead, allowing wandering spirits to wander the Earth undisturbed. During the night of October 31st, gatherings were held in the woods and on the hills for the ceremony of lighting the Sacred Fire and animal sacrifices were carried out. Dressed in grotesque masks, the Celts returned to the village, lighting themselves with lanterns made of carved turnips inside which the embers of the Sacred Fire were placed. With the arrival of Christianity, Halloween was not completely canceled, but became All Saints’ Day. When Irish people arrived in the United States, they brought this tradition which soon spread throughout the American people, becoming almost a national holiday. In the United States, Halloween has lost its religious and ritual meanings, and it has become an opportunity to have fun and organize cheerful celebrations. Children and teenagers see Halloween as an opportunity to have fun and to escape from everyday life: a second Carnival, in short.