Many people don’t know the history of Halloween.
Halloween is actually a celebration of All Hallows’ Eve, or the night before All Saints Day/ All Souls Day (1 November).
Halloween was originally a pagan holiday and dates back more than 2000 years. It was the celebration of the end of Summer and the harvest.
All Hallows’ Day was a day people believed ghosts would return to destroy the harvest stored for winter. In order to ward off the evil spirits, bonfires would be lit.
It is believed that some people wore masks to prevent being recognized by the evil spirits, which is one of the origins of dressing up for Halloween.
Halloween is one of my favourite holidays, or at least it was growing up.
It was a chance to dress up and visit my neighbours and get lots of candy. Now that I’ve lived in Australia for over 10 years, it is becoming more popular here, but I’m not sure my children will enjoy the holiday as much as I did.
As it is is Fall in the US for Halloween, it would be cold and dark by 4 in the afternoon. I grew up in a small town, so it wasn’t possible to walk to all the neighbor’s houses, and my mother had to drive us.
The house light being on was the signal that the house had candy for Halloween. I loved Halloween when it was on a Sunday most.
I grew up in a lake community where a lot of people had weekend/ summer homes. So when Halloween was on a Sunday, these houses would often leave a bowl of candy outside their front door! One of my neighbor’s created a “Haunted House” every year and it was great!