One of the antecedents to modern Halloween was the old world Catholic holidays of All Saints Day (Nov. 2nd) which was a day set aside for offering prayers to release the souls who were in purgatory. Modern opinion holds that Halloween’s origins as a festival of the dead have their origins in the more ancient pagan festival of Samhain (SOW-unn) but the idea of it being an evening of the wandering ghosts can be found in many of the folk beliefs in many Catholic countries, such Ireland.

All Souls Day was established in the 9th Century by the Odilon, the abbot of Cluny and was generally established in the 10th century. According to one legend, a wandering pilgrim traveling through the holy land heard the cries of those souls in purgatory and went to Rome to establish All Souls Day as a day for the faithful to hold Masses and offer prayers for those souls trapped in limbo. With time it became customary to offer small oatmeal cookies known as 'soul cakes' in exchange for prayers to help the dead find peace.

In this we find the seeds of the modern custom of trick or treating. It was customary for processions of people dressed in black, ringing dismal bells, to call upon the other villagers who have stayed indoors to remember those souls waiting for release.

In Naples the custom was to throw open the doors to the crypts and allow people to enter the vaults in order to visit their deceased family and friends who were placed there. These crypts housed many skeletons dressed in special robes and placed in special niches. In Salerno we find the laying out of food for the pleasure of the shades so they, too might partake in the feast. On this night the faithful would spend the night in the church leaving the feast for the shades. When they returned home in the morning there would be not even a morsel. Likely the food was consumed by the many beggars wandering out and about on this night. Likely the beggars carried off whatever left overs they could not consume in order to not insult the dead.