Key points

Halloween serves a handful of important roles in American society.

The holiday may allow us to vent fears of the unknown.

Halloween also may be an opportunity to acknowledge death.

Halloween in America is believed to be a descendant of the Celtic harvest festival that was also designed to remember the dead and ward off ghosts. How did a pagan ritual become a month-long celebration of spookiness in the 21st century?

There are several good psychological and sociological reasons to explain the enormous popularity of the modern-day phenomenon that is Halloween. I argue that the holiday serves important roles in American society that are hidden within the festivities:

Venting fears of the unknown. Americans, like members of most other cultures, share fears of what may reside i

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