The torches of the Welsh and the jack-o’-lanterns left at the edge of walks “kept witches away,” but they also lit a path for ancestors wandering across the veil. Candles might be placed in windows—usually in the west, to represent the land of the dead—or lights placed along walkways and paths so that the beloved dead visiting from across the veil could find the way to the door of their loved ones’ homes.
The Celts considered it unlucky to let a hearth fire go out on Samhain night. It meant darker evens awaited them in the coming year
