Halloween is a bit of a strange affair. And, again the Catholics feature heavily in the story.
It stems from the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced "sow-in" for some strange reason), which marked the end of Summer when cattle were brought in from the fields. On that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.
When the Romans arrived in the Britsh Isles in the 1st century AD they assimilated Samhain into the Roman celebrations that occurred in October. One of these was a day to honour Pomona, the Roman godess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is an apple - hence apple bobbing has become traditional at Halloween.
Sorry, I appear to be rambling a bit. So Why is it called Halloween? Well, this is where the Catholics come into the frame. The issue was that Samhain had become stong tradition in the British Isles (Ireland and Scotland in particular). The church were eager to convert all of the pagan Celts to Christianity, but the Celts continued to celebrate Samhain. The Church decided to move ‘All Saints Day’ from May to November the 1st to co-incide with the pagan festival. The evening of the 31st October was rebrand it as all Hallows Eve (Holy evening), in an attempt to give it a bit more of a Catholic look and feel, whilst glossing over the Pagan past. Hallows Evening has been subsequently shortened to Halloween (or, for the gramatical purists Hallowe’en).
Is it a little bit clearer yet? No? Hmm, I know what you mean. Let me move swiftly on to trying to explain Pumpkin Lanterns….
At some point in the distant past, Halloween became Mischief Night in many parts of the British Isles, the illumination for these pranksters was provided by lanterns carved from turnips or mangel-wurzels to represent spirits or goblins. The tradition of the turnip lantern remained particularly strong in Scotland and Ireland. During the great Potato famine in Ireland there was a mass migration of Irish people to America. The continued the tradition of lighting lanterns, but used the American pumpkin, bigger and more easily available at Halloween.