Boo! Today is Halloween and while you may immediately think of images of trick or treaters and jack-o-lanterns, Halloween is an age old holiday that originated by the ancient Celts in Ireland. The day was traditionally a harvest festival – it was also believed that the dead could walk the earth again and ghoulish costumes were used as a means of frightening off evil spirits. When Christianity became prominent, All Hallow’s Eve was a celebration of the Saints and the modern day name Halloween is derived from that. The ancient Celts believed that today was the best day to predict the future (as the lines between the living and dead were blurred) and they used divination practices to find out who would be married or who would die in the year ahead.
