Samhain (a.k.a. Halloween)

“It’s the ancient Celtic New Year’s festival, when the animals were brought down from their grazing grounds for the winter. The crops were harvested, and there was a great feast. Places were set at the festival dinner for those who had died during the previous year, as a sign of honor and faith in the continuing of the spirits of the dead…[It is] a combination of Halloween and Thanksgiving…Pope Gregory III in the eighth century dedicated November 1 All Saints’ Day, and October 31 All Hallows’ Eve…The Christian Church, and not for the first time, took over and renamed a pagan holiday.”

--From Madeleine L'Engle's An Acceptable Time, the fifth and final book in the Time Quintet