In response to the letter to the editor, “Bad holiday,” published Oct. 12, it is true, Halloween is a modern adaptation of an ancient pagan holiday.

Samhain (sow-en), or All Hallows Eve, is a celebration of the one night of the year when the veil between this world and the next was the thinnest. Spirits were free to roam between the to worlds. People left food out as offerings for the spirits, but if no offering was left, the spirits might play a trick on them.

Now, we give candy to children in hopes that our houses won’t get egged or our trees covered in toilet tissue.

Halloween is not a holiday of death and Satan, although dealing with the spirit world does remind one of one’s own morality. It is a pagan holiday, and a pagan no more believes in Satan and hell than a Christian believes in Krishna or Kali. Satan is a Judeo-Christian idea. Pagans do not follow that theology; therefore, to a pagan, there is no Satan.

Christopher Dufour, Lewiston