Some of you may be wondering about the holiday on which your animated Halloween screensaver is based.

The Celts celebrated New Year on November 1st. It was celebrated every year with a festival and marked the end of the season of the sun and the beginning of the season of darkness and cold.

On October 31st after the crops were harvested and stored for the long winter, the cooking fires in homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet in the hilltop in the sacred oak forest. The Druids would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. As they danced around the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin.

When morning arrived, the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.

The November 1st festival was called Samhain (pronounced “sow-en”) and lasted for three days. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals. This festival became the first Halloween.

The next influence came with the spread of the new Christian religion throughout Europe and Britain. In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church would make November 1st a church holiday to honor all the saints. This day was called All Saint’s Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows. Years later the Church would make November 2nd a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was to honor the dead. It was celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as saints, angels and devils.

But the spread of Christianity did not make people forget their early customs. On the eve of All Hallows, Oct. 31, people continued to celebrate the festivals of Samhain and Pomona Day. Over the years the customs from all these holidays mixed. October 31st became known as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow’s Eve, Hallowe’en, and then – Halloween.

With so much mystery and arcane rituals surrounding Halloween, it’s no wonder that we offer a great set of scary screensaver options for you to download right away!

Halloween Today and Halloween Screensavers and wallpapers

Since 250,000 people celebrate the holiday by putting up a Halloween desktop screensaver, it’s no surprise that big money is also spent on Halloween.