Halloween

Date

October 31

History

This holiday is also called All Hallows' Eve or All Saints' Eve. It is the night before the Christian holiday All Saints on 1 November, which honours all the saints, known and unknown. It is linked to the medievalof or relating to the Middle Ages Irish festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvestthe process of gathering the ripened crop. With Christianisation, the festival in November became All Hallows' Day on November 1, followed by All Souls' Day. Over time, the night of October 31 came to be called All Hallow's Eve, and the festival dedicated to the dead eventually transformed into the secularnot specifically religious holiday known as Halloween. The imageryvisual representation of Halloween is derivedto originate from many sources, including national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature and classic horror films. It includes themes of death, evil, the occult, or mythical monsters. Black and orange are the holiday's traditional colors.

Traditional observance

Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husksthe dry, leafy or stringy exterior of certain vegetables or fruits, and scarecrowsa representation of a person, typically made of straw and dressed in old clothes, fixed to a pole in a field to deter birds from eating seeds are prevalent. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween. Some people even make their home into a haunted house which other people can visit as an attraction. A traditional Halloween custom is Trick-or-treating. Children go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" Halloween costumes are traditionally modelled after supernatural figures such as monsters, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Some people throw Halloween parties with the telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films being common features.