Halloween is the second most popular festival in the United States, and it is gaining a lot of popularity in India recently. Every year on October 31, Halloween is celebrated. It is best known as the time of ‘trick or treat’, dressing up in costume, visiting haunted houses, telling scary stories and much more.

But as this festival is not so common in our country, it is important to know the history behind it. Halloween is said to have originated from the ancient Celtic Festival called Samhain celebrated by Celts 2000 years ago. This festival is marked as the end of the harvest season. People believed that the festival makes their gods happy, so they would protect their families and crops during the long hard winter that was to come. At the harvest festival they wore costumes and feasted together.

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Where did the name Halloween come from

The name Halloween comes from ‘All Hallows Eve’. Christians, traditionally called October 31 as the day before All Saints Day or All Hallows day over the years ‘All Hallows’ became widely known as Halloween. On this day, Celtic priests would often make predictions about the future for the long and dark times that lay ahead.

Some Halloween traditions:

Costumes

A long time ago some people believed that ghosts walk the streets on Halloween’s night and they were scared of the encounter. They began to wear masks to fool the ghosts into believing that they were other spirits. Soon after people started to wear costumes to go with the masks. Today, people have fun dressing-up in costumes such as their favourite horror movie, Monster or a TV Character. They do it creatively.

Trick -or- treat

Many years ago, people were not just afraid of meeting ghosts on Halloween’s night, they were also terrified that ghosted spirits would come into their homes. They began leaving bowls of foods outside their doors to scare the ghosts from entering. Over time people became less faithful of the old ghost stories and started eating the treats themselves. Some people says that was how Trick- or- treat began. Today children and teenagers dress up in costumes and knock on neighbour’s doors saying trick- or -treat. Adults pass out candies or other tasty treats which are usually collected in a bucket or a bag.

Pumpkins

Carved pumpkins are called jack-o-lanterns. A long time ago people kept jack-o-lanterns outside their homes on Halloween’s night to scare away evil spirits. Today people carve all sort of silly and spooky faces on pumpkins as decoration.

In the United States, there is a growing trend for second Halloween celebration in July which is extra special day for Halloween fans to celebrate the festival twice in one year.