Halloween in the original

The otherwise interesting piece by Mindy Farabee about Halloween (“Modern Scare Tactics,” Oct. 4) mentioned just about everyone’s October festiveness except the original owners: Celtic pagans and witches. It’s the Celtic New Year, the beginning of winter, and it’s very important to us indeed.

We call the holiday Samhain (pronounced SAH-win), which simply means “summer’s end,” and it is the holiest day of our year, marking the time when our beloved dead return to be with us. In the spirit (no pun intended) of the season, we celebrate with food and drink, making sure to feed our guests from the other side of the veil (Celts prefer pork and apples).

Nothing diabolical or satanic in the slightest; all that was added later by Christians in an attempt to get the people away from what the church perceived as their evil pagan ways.

Patricia Kennealy Morrison

New York