Talk:Halloween

Dating of Samhain

I have removed the claim in the History section that Samhain "was held on or about 31 October – 1 November". This claim is controversial and no sources were provided for it. StabatMater (talk) 06:53, 30 October 2018 (UTC)

Etymology

The etymology section makes the rather strange claim that Hallowe'en "comes from a Scottish term for All Hallows' Eve". It cites to the OED, but I've checked my OED (1971) and far from supporting the claim, it explicitly notes "Hallowe'en" as being "shortened from all-hallow-even".

I'm not sure why someone felt the need to attempt to connect "Hallowe'en" to Scots, given its obvious English derivation. I'm not familiar with Scots other than that it itself descends from Old English, which may explain any similarities. However, Scots did not emerge as a distinction dialect/language until the 13th century, too late to claim exclusivity to words such as "hallow" and "evening".

I've rewritten the section accordingly. StabatMater (talk) 07:58, 30 October 2018 (UTC)