Halloween has been around longer than any of us. Every year, kids dress up in costumes and go house to house, taking candy. Whether you’re dressed up as something scary, funny, or sweet, it’s a holiday for anyone to enjoy, besides dentists. But what’s the purpose of this celebration? And who on earth would create a day for getting candy and eating it?

The earliest traces of Halloween can circulate back to 2,000 years ago, when the Celts, who lived around the regions of Ireland, United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their festival, Samhain.

Samhain is one of the four fire festivals that the Celts celebrated. The other three were Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnasadh. They used each festival as a mark to where each season started and ended. Samhain, in this case, usually begins October 31st. On this day, the community would gather and watch as priests lit a large fire using a wheel that symbolized the sun. The Celts would wear costumes, usually animal heads and skins. People would say prayers and sacrifice cattle, and at the end of the ceremony, they would take a flame from the large bonfire and relight the fire they have at home.

Usually, traditions are a choice for each family to follow. But with Samhain, the Celts were required to participate, or else the Celts believed the people who would not come will die or become sick.

The Celtics continued these traditions until 43 A.D., when the Roman Empire conquered most of the Celtic land. The Romans didn’t ruin these Celtic traditions though. Instead, they formed a new combination of religion and celebrations, Samhain being one of these. With the new Roman adaptations, the two-day festival had new traditions and even some of the previous ones. On the first day of the festival, which was called Feralia, the Romans would honor the dead. For the second day of the ceremony honored Pomona, the Roman Goddess of fruit and trees. These traditions would continue for hundreds of years.

When the 9th century came around, Christianity had reached the Celtics. Christian traditions soon mixed with older Celtic ones. The church had made November 2nd All Soul’s Day, honoring the dead as well. It would also be called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (which stems from the word Alholowmesse in Middle English, meaning All Saint’s Day). Many theorize that this was the church trying to replace Celtic traditions and bring them into Christianity.

This new celebration was very similar to Celtic traditions. People made fires, and the Celtics continued to dress up as angels and devils or even saints. These traditions would last for a long time, the name changing to All-Hallows Eve and finally, Halloween.

So, before you go out all dressed-up with your friends on Thursday, October 31st, just remember all the events that led to this candy devouring night.