About Halloween

[Haunt Master]

Halloween is a festival celebrated on October 31st. Its name means hallowed or holy evening because it takes place the day before All Saints' Day. Halloween is a time of parties for both young and old. Some schools have costume parties for the children. There are special games which are played at Halloween, such as bobbing for apples and telling fortunes and ghost stories.

Many superstitions and symbols are connected with Halloween. The Irish have a tale about the origin of jack-o-lanterns. They say that a man named Jack was unable to enter Heaven because of his miserliness. He could not enter Hell because he had played practical jokes on the Devil. So he had to walk the earth with his lantern until Judgment Day.

The Druids, an order of priests in ancient Gaul and Britian, believed that on Halloween, ghosts, spirits, fairies, witches, vampires and elves came out to harm people. They thought the cat was sacred and believed that cats had once been human beings, but were changed as a punishment for evil deeds. From these Druidic beliefs comes the present-day use of witches, ghosts, and cats in Halloween festivities. The Druids had an autumn festival called Samhain (pronounced SAH win), or summer's end. It was an occassion for feasting on all the kinds of food which had been grown during the summer. The custom of using leaves, pumpkins, and cornstalks as Halloween decorations comes from the Druids. The early people of Europe also had a festival simila to the Druid holiday.

In 700 A.D., the Roman Catholic Church named November 1st as All Saints' Day. The old pagan customs and the Christian feast day were combined into the Halloween festival.

Now, in USA, Halloween was an occassion for playing harmless pranks. But in later years, as now, many boys and girls love to play Halloween pranks that were not so harmless. They overturned sheds, broke windows, robbed people, stole candies, and damaged much property. In all cities, the police must work hard on Halloween to prevent pranksters from doing anything wrong. Many communities now stop such action by holding Halloween parades and community gatherings which provide fun, in place of pranks, for children of all ages.

[Rising Dead Man]

Nice idea for a post! I agree. Causing damage for a prank is not cool!! I guess now that I'm a teen I should start playing pranks for Halloween! I never have before. My life is soooooo dull!

[Haunt Master]

I used to be Halloween prankster before - but not anymore because I don't feel like to play any more at all and I have to show respect others.

Well, my friends and I were kids, we used to throw water balloons at the cars on Halloween night! hee hee The last car we threw water balloons, that guy came out of his car with a gun in his hand and we had to run away!

[Rising Dead Man]

WOW..... That guy was sick. Maybe he was a gangster or something. Who knows?

[Haunt Master]

No, he was not the gangster... he was navy because he had navy uniform on!! Maybe he was the navy officer, something like military police.

[Rising Dead Man]

Wow. He must have been really pissed. Are you sure it was not a costume or something? Maybe he was not really in the navy?

[Haunt Master]

Yes, he was a REAL navy because I can ID his uniform - Not a costume! It's a real navy uniform! I guess he came straight home from the naval base, maybe from the bar...

[Rising Dead Man]

I think the bar.

[Haunt Master]

Well, it could be from the bar when it was served Halloween drinks, perhaps? Maybe he was out of control while he was so drunk by pulling out his gun... But me and my friends noticed him that he was acting as sober!

I don't think so he was there for drinking party on that Halloween night, but maybe so...I really don't know. I was only about 12 year old! Hee hee... Right now, I'm 32! Do the math - 20 years ago! Long time ago! I'll be 33 in 3 weeks from now!!