Halloween is a medieval Christian festival held on the night before Allhallowtide.
The present date of Hallowmas (All Saints’ Day) and therefore also of its vigil (Hallowe’en) was established in Rome around the time of Pope Gregory III (731–741).
The festival does not have any particular pre-Christian pagan origin (despite spurious claims on the Internet about the Celtic harvest festival Samhain), though the basic belief in praying to saints, and ghosts is based on the idea of the immortal soul – which ultimately does have pagan origins, both in Greek and Roman beliefs and back to the ancient Canaanites and earlier. Likewise the demons which feature in Christian Halloween traditions are a pagan belief, made Jewish then made Christian, as reported (but not taught) in the Synoptic Gospels.
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