All Hallows Even

It's Halloween!

Halloween has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain loosely referred to as the pagan new years, however, the name comes from the Christian holiday All Saint’s Day that was placed on the same day.  Samhain is Gaelic for “summer’s end, the end of the “lighter half” of the year and the beginning of the “darker half.”

In Old English All Hallows in Old English means “the feast of the saints.”  In the 16th century, the Scottish variant "All Hallows Even" started to be commonly used and later the word was abbreviated to “Hallowe’en”. The current variation was adopted in the early 20th century.

Here's Stephen Lynch with his Halloween song.