Actual Halloween
HALLOWEEN WASN'T SAMHAIN
Everything You Know About Halloween Is Wrong
The familiar story that Halloween is an ancient pagan festival called Samhain, barely disguised by Christianity is not history, but rather a popular fiction that actually began as more of an anti-Catholic move, especially with the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants. But it gets spun further out of sync with reality and actual history. Yet, what is often pushed now as if it were original and authentic is complete nonsense. It is a modern invention built from speculation, mistranslated, and repetition. What follows is not a reinterpretation of the past, but a correction of a mistake that has been passed off as fact for over a century.
How the Idea Developed
1. Early Irish antiquarians (18th century)
