Most historians agree that the first trace of what we call Halloween comes from Samhain (pronounced a “sah-win” by the few pagans I know and “sow-in” via the dictionary).  Some people have told me that they object because it comes from Samhain and they have the mistaken idea that Samhain was an Irish or Scottish goddess of the dead or some such.  There were a couple of Celtic gods of the dead, none of them were Samhain.  For the Brits, it was Gwynn ap Nudd.  For the Welsh it was Arawn.  So far as I’ve been able to find, the Irish and the Scottish didn’t have a god or goddess…