Halloween is the longest-running holiday ever in the history of the world, except for Take Your Pet to Work Day. Halloween culture can be traced back to the Druids, part of the Celtic culture. The Celts were a squirrelly lot.  They had no central government, no big important person in charge of everyone, no elected representatives or even Neighborhood Watch.  They were a loose confederation of tribes with different languages, customs, and teacher work days. In spite of this amazing lack of organization, they seemingly popped up out of nowhere around 400BC in northern Italy and displaced the Etruscans from the fertile Po valley.  The Etruscans, who had some really cool pottery, architecture, and art, just sort of gave up and disappeared. The Celts ultimately spread all over the place, especially the British Isles.

The Druids were the members of the educated, professional class among the Celtic peoples.  They were at the top…