or “The Pagan Origins of Halloween” all telling us much the same thing: Halloween may be the evening before All Saints Day, but it falls on this date because it was originally the pagan Celtic festival of Samhain, and all the spooky associations that it has come from this pagan festival of the dead. The claims about the origins of Halloween lying with Samhain tend to be very detailed about this “Celtic” festival, with references to all the key elements of it that thus made their way into Halloween traditions: trick or treating, Jack-o’-lanterns, dressing in costumes and masks and a general association with the dead.