Halloween, also called All Hallows' Eve, takes place on 31 October. It is a time when people dress up in costumes, go trick-or-treating and carve jack-o'-lanterns from hollowed-out pumpkins. Several ancient festivals held in the autumn helped create the holiday that exists today.
Origins of the Holiday
In ancient times, the holiday was marked by customs started by pagans, who were people who did not believe in one god. It was believed that on the last night of October, the spirits of the dead roamed the Earth. To scare them away, the pagans lit bonfires.
In ancient Rome the festival of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and gardens, occurred at about this time of year. This festival was associated with the harvest of food crops, and nuts and apples were roasted before huge bonfires as part of the celebration. However, this festival also had an evil aspect to it because ghosts and witches were thought to be wandering the Earth.
In the Christian church, All Hallows' Eve was the night before All Saints Day, which was held on 1st November to honour all of the saints of the church. Gradually, Halloween became a non-religious celebration, with some of the early customs remaining.
How Halloween Is Celebrated
Today ghosts and witches are popular costumes of the children who go from house to house saying, “Trick-or-treat!” The treat, usually sweets, is given out to those dressed in costume. Shops and homes display orange and black figures of witches, bats, spiders, black cats and pumpkins. People dressed in festive or scary outfits go to fancy dress parties, where old-fashioned games like bobbing for apples in tubs of water may be a part of the fun. In addition, the United Nations uses Halloween as a time to collect money for its children's fund.
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