The word Halloween is first used in the sixteenth century, comes in a variant of Scottish, English-language by interpreting the "All Hallows Eve (n)" (eve of All Saints).
The origin of the festival is Celtic, Samhain (derived from Old Irish, meaning "End of Summer").
The Celtic tree huggers (and nature in general), believed in an immortal soul, which when leaving a body, went to another. Although during the night of October 31 (day celebrating the end of harvest) the soul returned to his old home, allows the residents to feed it (which were required to do).
The Celtic New Year was celebrated on this date coinciding with the Fall, season when fall the leaves of the trees, which they interpreted as the end of the death (or initiation of new life). In the celebrations invoked their god "Lord of Death" or "Samhain" to ask about the future, health, etc.
During that day, both good and bad spirits could roam the earth. The familiar spirits, and invited were fed, while the wicked were driven away. Is believed that the use of costumes and masks, was to ward off evil spirits, posing as one of them.
The Roman Empire, hosted this tradition (which also coincided with the celebration of the end of the harvest in honor of the goddess Pomona, goddess of fruit trees). The two traditions were mixed and soon apples (which were very popular) joined the tradition.
As long as Christianity could not wipe a pagan holiday, what they did was mix it with a religious holiday. So they moved the feast of All Saints from May 13 to October 31 to make them coincide (although the party degenerated, and instead of remembering the good examples of the saints, the spotlight happened to be of old superstitions about death and the dead that fed the fear of people.
Irish painting by Daniel Maclise in 1833, inspired by a Halloween party he attended, taken from the wikipedia copyright expired in Europe, USA and elsewhere
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