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That Halloween originated as the day before All Saints' Day might seem a straightforward explanation. But popular history points to another source: The pagan festival of [[Samhain]], observed by the ancient Celts on November 1.<ref>For a "popular history" account, see "[https://www.irishpost.com/news/samhain-seven-facts-about-the-spooky-irish-festival-which-became-halloween-105009 Samhain: Seven facts about the spooky Irish festival which became Halloween]", ''Irish Post''.</ref>

That Halloween originated as the day before All Saints' Day might seem a straightforward explanation. But popular history points to another source: The pagan festival of [[Samhain]], observed by the ancient Celts on November 1.<ref>For a "popular history" account, see "[https://www.irishpost.com/news/samhain-seven-facts-about-the-spooky-irish-festival-which-became-halloween-105009 Samhain: Seven facts about the spooky Irish festival which became Halloween]", ''Irish Post''.</ref>

The earliest mention of Samhain in surviving literature is found in "The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain," which dates from the tenth or eleventh centuries. It portrays Samhain as a harvest festival held at "summer's end:"<ref>"Summer's end" is a mistranslation of Irish ''Samhain.'' (The word is actually from Proto-Celtic ''*samani'' meaning "assembly.")</ref>

The earliest mention of Samhain in surviving literature is found in "The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain," which dates from the tenth or eleventh centuries. It portrays Samhain as a harvest festival held at "summer's end:"<ref>"Summer's end" is a mistranslation of Irish ''Samhain.'' The word is actually from Proto-Celtic ''*samani'' meaning "assembly.")</ref>

{{cquote|[The young men of Ulster] used to keep that festival every year; nor was there anything in the world that they would do at that time except sports, and marketings, and splendours, and pomps, and feasting and eating; and it is from that custom of theirs that the Festival of the Samhain has descended, that is now held throughout the whole of Ireland.<ref>Maelmuiri mac Ceileachair, "[http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/ireland/cuchulainnsick.htm The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain]." The translation is from ''Heroic Romances of Ireland.'' Vol I. A. H. Leahy, ed.

{{cquote|[The young men of Ulster] used to keep that festival every year; nor was there anything in the world that they would do at that time except sports, and marketings, and splendours, and pomps, and feasting and eating; and it is from that custom of theirs that the Festival of the Samhain has descended, that is now held throughout the whole of Ireland.<ref>Maelmuiri mac Ceileachair, "[http://www.luminarium.org/mythology/ireland/cuchulainnsick.htm The Sick-Bed of Cuchulain]." The translation is from ''Heroic Romances of Ireland.'' Vol I. A. H. Leahy, ed.

London: David Nutt, 1905. pp. 57-85.</ref>}}

London: David Nutt, 1905. pp. 57-85.</ref>}}