Changes

Connecting Halloween to pagan festivals was once a way to discredit Catholic practice. In modern times, the same theories serve a neo-pagan agenda. Both groups end up portraying the devoutly Catholic Ireland of the 18th and 19th centuries as a land of paganism.

Connecting Halloween to pagan festivals was once a way to discredit Catholic practice. In modern times, the same theories serve a neo-pagan agenda. Both groups end up portraying the devoutly Catholic Ireland of the 18th and 19th centuries as a land of paganism.

The earliest descriptions of Halloween as a festival refer, not to Ireland at all, but to late 18th century Scotland. The festival combines elements of several holidays that were suppressed in the 16th century as a result of the [[Reformation]]. The spread of the holiday owes much to a poem written by [[Robert Burns]] in 1785. With the Industrial Revolution crushing numerous long-established traditions, the Victorians turned to Halloween to retain connection with the past. The modern child-oriented version of the holiday was established by the early 1900s.

The earliest descriptions of Halloween as a festival refer, not to Ireland at all, but to late 18th century Scotland. The festival combines elements of several holidays that were suppressed in the 16th century as a result of the [[Reformation]]. The spread of the holiday owes much to a poem written by [[Robert Burns]] in 1785. With the Industrial Revolution crushing long-established traditions, the Victorians turned to revivalism to retain connection with the past. The modern child-oriented version of the holiday was established by the early 1900s.

==Etymology==

==Etymology==