Halloween, contraction of All Hallows’ Eve, a holiday associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins on October 31, the evening before All Saints’ (or All Hallows’) Day. In much of Europe and most of North America, observance of Halloween is associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins nonreligious. Halloween had its associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins in the festival of Samhain among the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland. On the day associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins to November 1 on contemporary calendars, the new year was believed to begin. That date was considered the beginning of the winter period, the date on which the associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins were returned from pasture and land tenures were renewed. During the Samhain festival the souls of those who had died were believed to return to visit their homes, and those who had died during the year were associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins to journey to the otherworld. People set bonfires on associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins for relighting their hearth fires for the winter and to associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins away evil spirits, and they sometimes wore masks and other associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins to avoid being recognized by the ghosts thought to be present. It was in those ways that beings such as witches, hobgoblins, fairies, and demons came to be associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins with the day. The period was also thought to be associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins for associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins on matters such as marriage, health, and death. When the Romans conquered the Celts in the 1st century, they added their own festivals of Feralia, associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins the passing of the dead, and of Pomona, the associatedbelievedcommemoratingcorrespondingdisguisesdivinationfavourablefrightengoddessherdshilltopslargelyobservedorigins of the harvest.