Once it was All Hallows Eve, looking to All Hallows (Saints) Day.

However, as discussed in Catholic Exchange:

In Western culture, Halloween has taken on a macabre, grotesque, and somewhat occult dimension over the last two centuries. The reasons for this are varied, but has more to do with the modern sentimentality towards a long lost paganism of imagination than any pagan religion of old.

We wouldn’t trade it for the real thing, pre-Christian and not innocent or freedom-loving at all, in case you buy Rousseau’s noble-savage ideas. (Allowing for others having bought into it more specifically, ahem.)

So long before Christ was knocked out of Christmas, the saints got the heave-ho from the vigil of All Saints. Tsk.

Try these on for size — the day’s offering from north of the border:

“In ancient Babylon, Sumeria, Egypt, China, Greece, and Rome . . . price controls promoted not fairness but famine. During the twentieth century, central banks were supposed to help safeguard economies, but they brought on the worst inflations and depressions. Alcohol and drug prohibition, intended to enforce moral behavior, contributed to escalating violence.”