A night thats filled with costumes, haunted houses, candy and kids ringing doorbells is the night of Halloween. October 31, traditional ghost costumes appear and night of Halloween. Halloween was brought to North America from pilgrams in the 19th century, while in the 20th century Halloween was introduced in the United States, Ireland, Canada and Puerto Rico. Halloween orginated from a Celtic festival known as Samhain ("sah-win"). The Gaelic culture believed in Samhain, which was a time where they took stock of the supplies they had as they prepared for winter. During this time October 31 would occur in which they believed was the closest day between the living and the dead. The dead were said to come back and cause destruction and major damage to those were still alive. Of course all this is just myths and has never been proven accurate. Masks and costumes appeared in an attempt to ward of these "evil spirits" by scaring them away. Halloween costumes used to range from the scariest ghost or goblen to now the cutiest baby lady bug or best looking pirate. The concept of Halloween costumes has changed a lot over the years into a spirit of fun that used to be a very dreaded day. Trick-or-treating first appeared as a gesture of the poor going door to door begging for food/treat and in return offering up a trick. Trick-or-treating has also taken on a new light and become more of a family tradition, as mothers and fathers now take their children around the neighborhood to gather candy from near by friends and family. Bobbing for apples came for a Romah tradition as they believed in a goodness named Pomana who believed that apples were sacred. Many games then came from using those apples in everyday holiday traditions. As many of the concepts of Halloween have been changed into new family tradtions, the true culture of Halloween still exsist.
One of the things I like best about Halloween is that I change outfits about six times. It is a lot of fun to play the different characters. -Nancy Kerrigan
