The celtic people of France and British of Isles began the tradition of Halloween some 2000 years back. On 31st October, the last day of summer is celebrated as the festival of Samhain, the lord of dead and is believed that the spirits are let free on this day. The name Halloween is not original. It started with “All Hallow’s Evening”, then it came to be known as “All Hallow’s Even”, then “All Hallow’en” and finally it got the name by which it is now common Halloween. In olden days the celtic priests made sacrifices to the God by burning alive animals, victims and prisoners in huge bonfires. They performed omens and predicted future. They believed that spirits might turn angry if not treated well. Some others believed that evil spirits conquer the earth on this day so they dress up weirdly with masks and costumes to conceal their originality.
The Halloween symbols talk about Trick-or-treating where the children used to go to each house collecting sweets and it was believed that the people left sweets on the table to please fairies and kind spirits, Jack-o’-lantern folk says that a greedy farmer Jack asked Satan to climb a tree and when Satan got stuck in the tree he carved a cross on the trunk and was cursed by the devil to roam round the earth with a candle in the pumpkin, Orange and Black and Witches are few other symbols. Generally Halloween is associated with scary symbols, goblins and skeletons. People going to Halloween parties dress up in unusual attires and colours. Though a religious festival nowadays most countries consider it to be holiday and party time.
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