Halloween- good fun!

Halloween is about to come. Halloween is a holiday of costumes, pumpkins, witches, ghosts, haunted houses and trick-or-treating. The word "Halloween" is derived from a few things; All Saints Day (1st November), Eve of All Hallows (All Hallows Eve).

The celebration of Halloween was originally the New Years Eve of the Celts, the eve of Samhain or "Winter's Eve". It was believed in ninth-century Europe that after you died, your soul remained in limbo. To send the souls up to Heaven the Christians used to go "souling". This is one custom which was thought that trick-or-treating originated from.

Origin of Halloween: The history of Halloween can be traced back 2,000 years. It was during these ancient times in Europe that the Celts celebrated the beginning of winter on the evening of October 31st. November 1st was the first day of their new year and it also marked the first day of winter. This tradition originated in Ireland, as the Celtic Irish once thought that on October 31 the spirits of the dead could re-enter the bodies of the living. In turn, the living would dress up in ghoulish costumes to scare the spirits away.

Many Halloween customs having to do with fire, fortune-telling, ghosts, and good luck can be traced to Celtic beliefs. Another ancient Halloween custom is making jack-o'-lanterns. An Irish legend has it that a man named Jack was too greedy to get into heaven and could not go to hell because he had tricked the devil. The devil threw a hot coal that fell on a turnip Jack was eating. The turnip with the glowing coal lighted Jack's way as he wandered the earth until judgment day looking for a final resting place. People began to carve out turnips at Halloween and put lights inside to remember poor Jack.

In America, the native pumpkin replaced the turnip. Another story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

How to celebrate this fun day: Halloween is celebrated on 31^st October. Today in America it is traditional to celebrate the holiday by throwing a party in which the guests dress in costume. At these parties people participate in games, play Halloween themed songs and decorate their homes, especially windows and doors with pictures of ghost and witches. Halloween themed music with spooky sounds helps to set an eerie mood. Today Halloween is celebrated mainly by small children, dressed up as their favorite evil character, going from door to door, demanding a treat or threatening a trick instead.

Dressing in costume is the most popular way to celebrate the spooky holiday. Dressing up in costumes relates to the Celtic tradition of wearing masks on All-Hallows Eve. People would disguise themselves so that they would be unrecognizable to ghosts. Today dressing in costume is very popular and ranges from ghost and witch costumes to trendy costumes such as famous characters.

A favorite symbol of Halloween is the Jack-O'-Lantern, a hollowed out pumpkin carved with a scary face, and with a lighted candle inside. In Scotland, a turnip was used, but was substituted by a pumpkin in America. In Ireland, the birthplace of Halloween, they still celebrate this holiday strongly. In more rural areas, bonfires are lit just as they were during the time of the Celts. Children then trick-or-treat around their neighborhoods.  

Unlike many other holidays such as Thanksgiving and Christmas, Halloween has no origins in Christianity. Halloween is unmistakably pagan in its origin, its symbols, and in the ways people celebrate it. The evil side of Halloween was pushed forward mainly by the church. The church maintained that the gods and goddesses and other spiritual beings of traditional religions were diabolical deceptions and manifestations of the devil. Therefore the customs associated with Halloween were always represented by the church as being evil - ghosts, human skeletons, symbols of the dead, Satan and other creatures such as witches.

Some Funky costume ideas:

• Leaf Blower: Wear a baseball cap with a leaf dangling in front of your face. When someone asks what you are, blow on the leaf.
• Nudist on Strike: Dress in normal clothes and carry a sign that says "Nudist on Strike."
• Jack and Jill: Get two t-shirts and write JACK and JILL on the backs of each. Jack can wear a broken crown and have lots of blood coming from his head. Jill should have lots of bruises from tumbling after, bruised face and bloody lips. They can both carry around tin pails of water!
• Butterfly and Butterfly Catcher: Let the girl dress as a butterfly and a boy dress as a butterfly catcher (shirt and shorts, safari hat, boots, and a butterfly net).

• Cowboy and Saloon Girl: Boy can wear jeans, cowboy shirt, bandana, boots, hat, holster and gun. Girl can wear a knee-high dress, with a lacy slip underneath and high heeled boots. One or both carries a bottle of liquor.
• Miss. America: Use a old bridesmaid dress of formal, add a pair of gloves, a tiara, some oversized jewelry, and heals. For the banner, a piece of wide ribbon, and write "Miss. America" in glitter.
• Mummy: Wrap yourself in white bandages (rolls of gauze). Use splotches of green paint for "mold". Use white make-up on face with "age lines" drawn on. The stiff-legged gait works perfectly.
• Cereal Killer: Attach little cereal boxes to a shirt, cut a slit in the boxes, glue in plastic knives into the holes, drip red paint running down from the knife hole in the box.

So this time have a blast and help your kids with different and funny costumes.

Don't know what to give the kids when they knock on your door? How about some Halloweem cookies.

Although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.

(Sources: wilstar.com, castleofspirits.com, anabaptists.org, ez-tracks.com, costumeideazone.com, robinsfyi.com)