Halloween

About Halloween

Halloween falls on 31 October, the eve of All Hallows' or All Saints' Day, from which its name derives (All Hallows' Even). Its roots are usually traced to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest and a night when the boundary between the living and the dead was thought to thin. It is a popular cultural celebration but not a public holiday.

Children go from house to house in costume calling trick or treat to collect sweets, while carved pumpkins known as jack-o'-lanterns glow on doorsteps. Homes are decorated with cobwebs, skeletons and ghosts, and older revellers attend fancy-dress parties, haunted attractions and horror-film marathons. The imagery of witches, black cats and the supernatural is everywhere, and bobbing for apples remains an older custom still enjoyed in places.