Druid Bonfires in Halloween History

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Ginny on behalf of Expert Village and I'd like to tell you a story. Come travel back in time with me as we explore the brief history of Halloween. The Druids who were the priests of the ancient Celts would build a huge fire using branches of oak trees which they considered sacred. They built the fire high on a hill to build up the strength of their sun god so that he would return at the end of winter and again bring life to their fields. At midnight the people would stop worshiping the sun god and begin to worship Samhain. They would sacrifice crops, animals and occasionally humans. The practice of human sacrifice was phased out by the 1600's although some people believe that some groups of the occults still practice it today. The fire that the Druids built was originally called a bone fire because of the bones of the dead animals and humans that remained after the fire had gone out. Today it is called a bonfire. During the night the villagers would dress as animals leave their homes and dance and celebrate hoping to slip in amongst the other evil spirits and fool them into thinking that they too were evil spirits out to cause destruction. Stay tuned for the history of Halloween chapter four."