Everybody knows that on Halloween, you dress-up in creative costumes, kids go door to door collecting candy saying in their cute little voices;”Trick-or-Treat!”  and sculpting pumpkins. Then, there are the things before Halloween, being stressed out on what to do for your costume. But before you realize that you have to decide on what your costume is going to be, let’s think about how we got this holiday of spooks.

It all began long ago, in 1745, as an old Christian holiday. They would celebrate it by saying, “It’s All Holy Day!” A bit later on, it became a tradition for the Celtic festival of Samhain, the cultural “Dark half” of a year, when they would light a bonfire, wear costumes, and then dance around it.

Before they go to sleep, they would leave food out for the ghosts don’t get angry and hurt their families.Then, in the early 19th century, Pope Gregory III changed the date to November 2 as a time to honor all Saints and Martyrs. It was then called “All Saints Day” for the reasons of celebrating and the celebrations were incorporated from All Holy Day.

Also, a new holiday was created on November 1 and named All Souls Day. All Holy day was then transformed into All Hallows Eve because it was celebrated in the evening. Still early, but near the middle of the 19th century, it was then renamed as Hallowe’en, getting rid of the “all” and replacing the “eve” with  “ ‘en”.

What of the trick-or-treating? Well, it wasn’t until the late 1940’s that they did give out candy……and started pulling tricks!

By then, Hallowe’en transformed into Halloween.

Now, are you confused about what costume to wear?

Well, here are some ideas!

Maybe your favorite character in a movie, book, or in real life!

               An Angel!                   A Devil!                            A Jedi!                    A Viking!

By Naomi Bopha Ahrens