🦇 Trick or Treat 🦇
🎃 Welcome to Halloween month 👻
Halloween is a celebration observed in many
countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All
Hallows' Day. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the
liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints
(hallows), martyrs, and all the departed. One theory holds that many
Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals,
particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which are believed to have
pagan roots. Some go further and suggest that Samhain may have been
Christianized as All Hallow's Day, along with its eve, by the early
Church. Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian
holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow's Day. Celebrated in Ireland and
Scotland for centuries, Irish and Scottish immigrants took many
Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century, and then through
American influence Halloween had spread to other countries by the late
20th and early 21st century. Popular Halloween activities include
trick-or-treating (or the related guising and souling), attending
Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns,
lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks,
visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror
or Halloween-themed films. Some people practice the Christian religious
observances of All Hallows' Eve, including attending church services and
lighting candles on the graves of the dead, although it is a secular
celebration for others. Some Christians historically abstained from meat
on All Hallows' Eve, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain
vegetarian foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes,
and soul cakes.