At this point in the year, we're moving very quickly up to Halloween, which is now the second most popular holiday in America,

trick-or-treaters, festive parades, candy, scary movies, and costumes. But a little more than a century ago,

none of these traditions existed in America. In terms of a historical timeline, these are all recent developments.

In its own way, Disney had a hand in shaping this holiday through its cartoons and TV shows.

Also, Halloween had a hand in shaping Disney. Without Halloween, it's unlikely that Disneyland would have been built in Anaheim.

Halloween was the key to make that connection.

And so today, we'll take a look at the history of Halloween as it relates to the Disney company,

to all of the connections between that holiday and the studio during the lifetime of

Walt and Roy. So if you've got your fun-sized candy bars all set out, if your pumpkins have

been carved with care, and if you're ready to explore how the worlds of Disney and Halloween collide,

then settle in as we serve up a strange

witch's brew of animation, amusement parks, and of course Halloween. Let's start with Halloween itself.

Halloween has long roots in Europe, to Celtic religious celebrations and later

to the Catholic tradition of All Souls Day.

But these traditions weren't immediately taken up in America, as early Puritan settlers wanted to distance

themselves from both pagan traditions and those of the Catholic Church.

Halloween mostly got a foothold in America in the mid-1800s

when a new wave of immigrants left Ireland to escape famine and settled in the U.S. bringing with them

the traditions of their homeland. These traditions included stories about the dead and spirits returning at the

end of the fall harvest season. But beyond these stories, the Irish had traditions where

kids carved up faces and turnips or gourds to scare off travelers. This would be an early

version of what later became the jack-o-lantern.

...