10 Things You Didn’t Know About Halloween

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Samhain The modern version of Halloween comes from the Celtic feast day Samhain, which was celebrated in Ireland, the United Kingdom and parts of northern France more than 2,000 years ago.

Celts believed it was a time where the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead became blurred.

They wore costumes and lit fires in the fields to celebrate.

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Costumes The Celts wore costumes as a way to trick the dead into not recognizing them.

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Orange is the New Black Ever stopped to wonder why the official colors of Halloween are orange and black? Orange represents the fall harvest; black represents the death of summer. (WTOP/Mike Jakaitis)
All Souls' Day After conquering the Celts, Rome combined Samhain with its own holidays to honor the dead.

Eventually, the Catholic Church declared Nov. 1 All Soul's Day, a time to honor martyrs and saints.

The feast day was later changed to Nov. 2, and is largely thought to have been implemented to replace the pagan Samhain.

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Colonial America Halloween was considered controversial in the New World by Protestants, who condemned its pagan roots.

Halloween was largely restricted to Maryland and Southern colonies.

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19th Century Halloween didn't become a national day of festivities until the 19th century, when immigrants from Europe help spread the merrymaking across the United States.

Americans took a cue from their Irish and English neighbors and starting wearing costumes to celebrate.

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Trick or Treat? Looking for Halloween events and activities in the area? There are plenty of free ways to get in the spooky spirit. (AP Photo)
Pumpkins The tradition of carving pumpkins also comes from the Celts. They did so as a way to ward off evil spirits on Samhain.

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Jack O' Lantern So why are carved pumpkins called Jack O' Lanterns? According to Celtic stories, a drunken man named Jack tricked the devil several times during his life.

When he finally died, neither God nor Satan would accept him.

Trapped in Limbo, Jack was eventually given a lump of coal that he put inside a carved turnip to light his path while he endlessly wandered Earth.(AP Photo)
Day of the Dead The Celts were not the only ones to believe that the veil between life and death blurred once a year.

Aztecs had their own version of Samhain, but it was not celebrated at the end of October. Their feast was a month-long ritual that fell on the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, which would coincide with August.

The Spanish conquistadors moved the Aztecs' festivities to coincide with the Catholic All Souls' Day as a way to indoctrinate the natives.

Today, Dia de los Muertos is celebrated throughout Mexico and parts of Central America. It is not a time of mourning but a time of celebration -- to the Aztecs, death was not an end but merely a change.

(AP Photo)
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