Halloween

Find out more about the history of Halloween, from the origins of the celebrations to why we use the term 'trick-or-treat'…

A man holds his head in his hands as he is visited by the ghostly apparition of a woman. A photographer's assistant is visible at centre, right.

General History

Halloween stories10 terrifying tales from medieval to modern history

Halloween card depicts a pair of girls as they look out of a window as a witch (with a black cat) rides a broom across a full moon, early 20th century.

General History

What is the history of Halloween?

A statue of Alice Nutter, one of the 1612 Pendle Witches. The statue is in her home village on Blacko Bar Road, Roughlee. (Image by Alamy)

The Pendle witches: what happened in the infamous Lancashire witch trial?

Halloween monsters: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Halloween traditions: everything you wanted to know. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

General History

Halloween podcast episodes

3 curious medieval ghost stories. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medieval ghost stories. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Pumpkins carved into jack o'laterns with candles inside

QuizWhich historic figure should you choose for your Halloween costume?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A phantasmagoria by Belgian entertainer Etienne-Gaspard Robert, whose stage name was Etienne Robertson, 1797. (Photo by Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Phantasmagoria: creating the ‘ghosts’ of the Enlightenment. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Glamis Castle is said to be the most-haunted castle in Scotland. (Photo by mpalis via Getty Images)

A royal ghost tour: 5 haunted sites around Britain

An illustration of a group of supposed witches

A very brief history of witches by Suzannah Lipscomb

Halloween postcard

10 things you didn’t know about the history (and mystery) of Halloween

Author Kate Summerscale (Photo by Fran Monks)

A 1930s ghost hunt. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A sign of the devil or a miracle cure? How people felt about spiders in the Middle Ages

5 Georgian ghost hoaxes

This 1867 magazine illustration shows a group of children preparing for Halloween. (Photo by American Stock/Getty Images)

The origins of Halloween: tricks, treats and cobbled streets

A woman on a medieval ducking stool

Q&AQ&A: Were ducking stools ever used as punishment for crimes other than witchcraft during the Middle Ages?

This 16th-century woodcut depicts King James VI at the North Berwick witch trials, the case that first sparked his obsession with hunting. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

James VI and I: the king who hunted witches. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Helen Duncan, a 20th-century medium and spiritualist, allegedly summoned spirits draped in ‘ectoplasm’ – organic matter emitted from her body. In the 1930s she was denounced as a fraud, and in 1944 prosecuted under the 1735 Witchcra Act, which forbade conjuring spirits. (Photo courtesy of Ashmolean Museum/University of London)

Conjuring up the dead: Helen Duncan and her ectoplasm spirits

A depiction of a witch on a broomstick. (Photo by: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

QuizHow much do you know about the history of Halloween?. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

A view of the Reculver Towers, Reculver, England. (Photo by Loop Images/UIG via Getty Images)

8 of Britain’s most mysterious ruins

A view of a calander showing the date, Friday the 13th. (Photo by William C. Shrout/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

10 historical superstitions we carry on today

In this painting from c1650, a witch wields a broomstick as demons and 'familiars' (helpers of witches) congregate before her. (Photo by Rischgitz/Getty Images)

History quiz – witchcraft and superstition. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Portrait of black cat – unlucky for some? (Photo by Getty Images)

Q&AWhy are black cats unlucky?

Old Wardour Castle

Britain’s 7 most amazing ruins

An engraving from Ulrich Molitor’s ‘On witches and female soothsayers’, depicting witches bringing down the rain. Germany, 15th century. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

A spell-binding history of witches

Professor Ronald Hutton © Jeni Nott

Witchcraft through the ages. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Woodcut of a meal shared at a witches' Sabbath. (Photo by Time Life Pictures/Mansell/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)

Ronald Hutton on the Witch. This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Medieval zombies: how the walking dead haunted the Middle Ages