Origin of name The term Halloween is shortened from All Hallows Eve (both “even” and “eve” are abbreviations of “evening,” but “Halloween” gets its “n” from “even” ) as it is the eve of “All Hallows’ Day”, which is now also known as All Saints’ Day.

Background

Halloween has origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. Traditionally, the ancient Celts believed that on October 31, the boundary between the living and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festival was a time used by the ancient Celtic pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to copy the evil spirits or placate them.

Celebration

The day is often associated with the colors orange and black, and is strongly associated with symbols such as the jack-o’-lantern. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o’-lanterns, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies.

Food

Because the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, candy apples (also known as toffee, caramel or taffy apples) are a common Halloween treat made by rolling whole apples in a sticky sugar syrup, sometimes followed by rolling them in nuts.

Religious perspectives

Many Christians ascribe no negative significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular holiday devoted to celebrating “imaginary spooks” and handing out candy.

Source: wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org