By the nineteenth century, as people wanted to inject a sense of magic and mystery back into their world, Halloween again became associated with the occult. Insofar as witches held sway over literary imagination, they became entangled in Halloween.

Their cultural significance dates back to ancient traditions. The modern jack-o’-lantern, for example, originated from an Irish myth about “Stingy Jack,” a man doomed to wander the earth with only a carved-out turnip and a coal for light.

One theory explains that Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, where people would light bonfires and dress up in costumes to scare off roaming ghosts and spirits. They believed that on Halloween, ghosts came back to Earth and would haunt anyone who left their homes.