Halloween has long been the spookiest date in the calendar, when the tortured souls of the dead are supposed to walk the earth and evil spirits lurk in every shadow.

But October 31 hasn’t always been about carving pumpkins, going trick-or-treating or being terrified of things that go bump in the night.

The real origins of Halloween can be traced back to old European religious festivals, traditions and beliefs.

Steve Roud, author of A Pocket Guide to Superstitions of the British Isles, says that – contrary to popular belief – we can’t trace Halloween celebrations quite as far back as Pagan times.

“Certainly the festival of Samhain, meaning Summer’s End, was by far the most important of the four quarter days in the Irish medieval calendar, and there was a sense that this was the time of year when the physical and supernatural worlds were closest and magical things could happen,’’ he says.

“But however strong the evidence in Ireland, in Anglo-Saxon England there is hardly any mention of it until much later.”

According to Roud, Halloween actually had no real association with the dead until around 800-1000AD when Christianity deemed it the Eve of All Hallows and All Saints from which, along with All Souls (November 2), constituted Hallowtide.

“The key element was that this was the time for commemoration of the departed faithful, and in particular the day when prayers could be said and bells could be rung, to get souls out of purgatory and into heaven.

“The reforming Protestant churches abolished these notions, but they continued in Catholic areas and in the popular mind and traditions.’’ SUPERSTITIONS When folklore records began to be made in the 18th and 19th centuries, the overwhelming features of Halloween were divination and games involving seasonal produce such as cabbages, apples and nuts.

SOULING Stemming from a ninth century European custom, on All Souls’ Day, poor people went a-souling (begging) when they received ‘soulcakes’ or buns in exchange for promises to pray for the dead.

The church encouraged the distribution of soulcakes as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. Eventually going a-souling was taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighbourhood and be given ale, food, and money.

MISCHIEF NIGHT From the 19th century onwards in some parts of the country, Halloween was known as Mischief Night, which bears some relation to our modern-day trick or treating.

Mischief Night, which also fell on April Fools’ Day, May Day and on November 4 in different parts of the country, involved children playing pranks and practical jokes on local people.

The traditional jokes were to take neighbours’ gates off their hinges or swap people’s numbers around on their doors – they were harmless and seldom get out of hand but sometimes there was trouble and many local authorities tried to ban it. Mischief Night is still sometimes practised in parts of the country.

CABBAGE, NUTS Young men used to pull cabbage stalks – their size and the amount of earth sticking to them foretold whether their future wives would be tall or short, rich or poor.

The burning of nuts is still practised as well – couples place nuts in pairs on the hearth and from their behaviour draw conclusions about their future love life. If they crackle and burn brightly or smoulder slowly, their love will follow suit.

MIRRORS It is an old Halloween tradition for females to peel an apple in front of a candlelit mirror – if an unbroken rind is achieved then the image of the future spouse is supposed to appear in the mirror.

Alternatively, if they threw the rind over their shoulder, the position in which it fell would spell out the initial of their true love. This was also said to be true of a veiled mirror, which would reveal the face of your future spouse when the veil was removed at midnight.

HOUSES In days gone by, people feared Halloween because they believed the spirits who walked the earth on this day were capable of possessing their bodies.

To discourage them, they darkened their houses to make them as cold and unwelcome as possible, and donned all manner of frightening dress to rowdily take to the streets to try to scare the spirits off.

TRICK OR TREAT Most other celebrations were dying out in this country and so our modern take on Halloween, such as witches’ hats and brooms, pumpkins and trick-or-treating, was imported lock, stock and barrel from America in about 1960.