Halloween (also written Hallowe’en, literally “holy evening”), also known as All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve, is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and gets its name from being the evening (e’en) before the Western Christian holy day of All Saints (the Eastern Orthodox celebrate All Saints’ Day in June). It is largely a secular celebration but some have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones.
The colours black and orange have become associated with the celebrations, perhaps because of the darkness of night and the colour of fire or of pumpkins, and maybe because of the vivid contrast this presents for merchandising. Another association is with the jack-o’-lantern. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, ghost tours, bonfires, visiting haunted attractions, pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.
The Treehouse of Horror’s episodes of The Simpsons are a good company to celebrate Halloween.
Happy Halloween everybody!
