In ancient times, the holiday was marked by customs started by pagans, who were people who did not believe in one god. It was believed that on the last night of October, the spirits of the dead roamed the Earth. To scare them away, the pagans lit bonfires.
In ancient Rome the festival of Pomona, the goddess of fruits & gardens, occurred at about this time of year. This festival was associated with the harvest of food crops, & nuts & apples were roasted before huge bonfires as part of the celebration. However, this festival also had an evil aspect to it because ghosts & witches were thought to be w&ering the Earth.
In the Christian church, All Hallows' Eve was the night before All Saints Day, which was held November 1 to honor all of the saints of the church. Gradually, Halloween became a non-religious celebration, with some of the early customs remaining.Halloween, also called All Hallows' Eve, takes place on October 31. It is a time when people dress up in costumes, go trick-or-treating, & carve jack-o'-lanterns from hollowed-out pumpkins. Several ancient festivals held in the autumn helped create the holiday that exists today.
Today ghosts & witches are popular costumes of the children who go from house to house saying, “Trick-or-treat!” The treat, usually c&y, is given out to those dressed in costume. Stores & homes display orange & black figures of witches, bats, black cats, & pumpkins. People dressed in festive or scary outfits go to costume parties, where old-fashioned games like bobbing for apples in tubs of water may be a part of the fun. In addition, the United Nations uses Halloween as a time to collect money for its children's fund.
