Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31st. It is celebrated with Halloween costums, Halloween parties and kids going house to house going trick or treating. It is celebrated in the US and in other parts of the world like the United Kingdom and Canada.

How Halloween is celebrated today goes back to the time when ancient pagans believed that October 31 is the day when the boundary between the living and the dead dissolves. Since the dead could cause harm to those who are living, people will go out into the streets wearing Halloween costums and masks to ward off the evil spirits.

But that was then and now, we simply do it for fun. Weeks before Halloween, people would go out and buy Halloween costumes. The most saleable ones are the skeletons, ghosts, vampires, witches and devils. If you have the time, you can make your own costume based on a television show or movie.

One study shows that of the people surveyed, more than half of the American public plan to buy a costume for Halloween even if it costs $10 more than it did last year. This means that sales will reach more than $6 billion from a little over $5 billion last year.

People in the Halloween spirit will also put up decorations in their homes like carved pumpkins, skeletons and candles.

During parties, aside from the food and drinks, several games are played. The most common is dunking or bobbing for apples in which applies that are floating in a tub or large basin are picked up by the participants using their teeth.

Another is to eat syrup coated scones that is hanging by a string. Again, you have to eat it without using your hands.

If you don’t want to go to party and do something daring, try going with a few friends and visit a haunted house. Many people don’t do this literally when they can have fun visiting a theme park that has something special for the occasion.

The favorite fruit during Halloween is the apple because it comes during the wake of the harvest season. You can eat it directly or have this mixed with sticky syrup and nuts.

Other countries celebrate Halloween differently. In most Asian countries, the people put food and water as well as a lantern so those who have departed will have something to eat, drink and a lighted path as they travel the earth during Halloween night. In Czechoslovakia, chairs are placed by the fireside on Halloween night. Each chair represents a living member and those who have passed on. The Swedes simply give students a day-off and a shortened working day for the employees.

But paying homage to the dead is what most countries do during Halloween. In fact, the day after which is November 1, is considered to be All Saint’s Day while the 2nd is called All Soul’s Day. This is done to commemorate those who are in purgatory with the hope of being cleansed of their sins so they may go to heaven.

For most children and adults, Halloween is simply a time to dress up in Halloween costums and have fun with friends and family. They can go around getting candy by moving from one house to the next while the grown ups will go to a party where there is a lot of food and drinks.

Many parents, for varied reasons, are getting out of the traditional Halloween spirit of Halloween costums and trick or treating. To replace the door to door trick or treating or Halloween parties, parents are instead choosing Harvest or Fall parties. These are basically a watered down version of the traditional Halloween.

Many of today’s parents who are Christians themselves placed Christmas as their favorite holiday as a child. Many of those same parents chose Halloween as one of their favorite holidays as a child too. Back then, they had no idea that Halloween could be a huge offense to Christians. Just as the Christian holiday of Christmas can be an offense to the non-believer.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s there were reports of razor blades and needles being put into apples being handed out to trick or treating children. Around the same time there were reports that candy and taffy were being laced with poison.

To my personal knowledge these incidents ended up being unfounded or even the parents’ involvement for one reason or another. Ann Landers and Dear Abby spoke of the dangers of trick or treating, but all over America concerned parents began to make changes either closely monitoring their children’s activities or changing their activities altogether when it came to Halloween and trick or treating.

Church sponsored parties for neighboring children first became popular in the 1980’s. During the hours of trick or treating it was common to find the church doors open offering children an alternative to traditional trick or treating. These alternatives still had every kid’s favorite part of the holiday – candy, but also included games and an overall safer way to spend the night. This was the start of Harvest parties replacing the trick or treating and scary Halloween parties.

This leads us to wonder: Where Exactly Did the Worry About Halloween in Christianity Come From?

Follow along as we see how it all came to be that many Christian parents’ now choose to celebrate Harvest without the evil and scary side of Halloween.

The Celtic’s celebrate the end of summer on Halloween by sacrificing to the gods of the Druidic tradition. Their belief was that the lord of death (Samhain) would send out evil spirits to attack the living. The only protection from the lord of death was for them to disguise themselves as evil beings or spirits, thus the costumes.

Wicca followers celebrate Halloween as one of two high and “holy” days. Following the Celtic belief as outlined above and worshipping Samhain, Halloween becomes a very evil day in the eyes of the Christian believer.

Fourth Century Christians, in an attempt to get away from this evil, began to focus and celebrate Christian saints. This is what we now know as All Saints Day on November 1st. It was during this time that parents, realizing that they could not completely get away from this day, began to allow their children to dress up in costumes that were non-evil such as brides, princesses, pumpkins and football players.

October 31st will come each year and there will always be a need for Halloween costums. I hope this brief history on the emerging Harvest parties and Halloween will give you some insight when choosing how you will spend this day. No matter which tradition you follow, be safe!

The era of the adults Halloween costumes. Halloween has always been very popular with adults. But over the last decade, there has been a very significant increase in the number of adults and their level of participation during Halloween. And there’s a good reason why. It goes far more beyond that of helping kids choose and put on their costumes and giving out candies to trick-or-treaters. Halloween can be the one night of the year where adults, men and women alike, can dress up as any character they want, without fear of having their personal characters demeaned.

You see more and more adults Halloween costumes, even when staying inside their homes and handing out treats at the door. You can also see a lot of grown-ups nowadays going out trick-or-treating themselves and having a lot of fun out on the streets. Many businesses hold Halloween office parties. They allow, if not encourage, their employees to wear costumes to work as part of the Halloween spirit. Even night clubs are getting into the act, with contests for the best costumes being held during this occasion. A lot of pretty hefty prizes for the best costumed person or couple.

But most of all, it has also become a social event for donning their costumes and heading to Halloween parties, and generally have fun. Whether they are at someone else’s home, at a nightclub, or at an office party, just about everyone enjoys the Halloween festivities. For reasons that need not be explained, the most popular years are when Halloween falls on a Friday or Saturday.

While traditionally filled with ghouls, goblins, ghost and other scary characters, Halloween night is also a very sexy holiday. It has now become commonplace to see adults Halloween costumes as enthralling witches and seductive lady vampires, and of course, one cannot forget Elvira, the Mistress of the Dark herself. Couples have also made Halloween their favorite time to dress up together as characters in fantasy, fairy tales, or anyone and anything else they would like to be. There are countless possibilities for creative and imaginative couples to enjoy this holiday.

And why not? Halloween is the one time of the year that almost anything goes, and where people can dress up and live out their fantasies, secret or otherwise. In fact, Halloween gives a lot of people a kind of “social freedom”; a chance to let loose and be sexy, naughty, weird, spooky, or scary, without being judged by others. It’s simply an assumed persona for a night of celebration.

Every year more adults are dressing in costumes for their Halloween festivities. A recent survey states that more than 75% of adults who usually participate in Halloween festivities plan on wearing a costume as part of their Halloween celebration.

Article Source: articles-at.smartnetworld.com

Anthony Gifford is a researcher and writer working for www.halloweencostumeonline.com, where you can get all the best Halloween costumes you want at the best prices. Visit us for all your Halloween costume needs.