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I was going to say the same thing. There is nothing "deep" about this history, the article is a string of poorly connected events that still try to bring up the spectre of wrong ideas that came out in the 60's tying Samhaim to our modern Halloween which has been refuted many many times. I am sorry but bonfires are not really associated with modern Halloween and just because ancient persians used them does not meaningfully tie that in with trick or treating, ghouls and ghosts. Even this actual line sounds nothing like our modern halloween:

> A 12th-century Irish source records a week of feasting during this time, when “there would be nothing but meetings and games and amusements and entertainments and eating and feasting" (sounds fun!).2 There is talk of kindling sacred fires, and of spirits and ghosts wandering the earth. But very little detail.

This sounds more like Thanksgiving (or fall festivals Oktoberfest etc) than halloween.

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I almost lost it when he started making claims about proto-Indo-European religion.

I don't want to dunk on the author too much. His book about Margaret Mead and psychedelics sounds interesting, and I read a couple positive reviews of it. It looks like he spent too much studying early anthropologists and he seems to be replicating their worst qualities as academics.