The Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve rush has begun; costume shops have popped up all over Fresno, and people are really getting into the Halloween spirit. But all the cobwebs, vampires, ghouls and goblins have to originate from somewhere.

Questions arose in this brain of mine. Questions like, why do we celebrate Halloween? Why is it a holiday? And why do we dress up like freaks and run around the neighborhood begging for candy?

So I took it upon myself to research the topic. Of course, on the internet, Halloween originated from at least six different locations. It was the good old library which gave me the answers I was looking for. It was the one place I could trust for some useful information.

It turns out that the origin of Halloween comes from the Celts. Celtic people had a celebration every year. It was called “Samhain”and was held at the end of October to recognize the ending of summertime.

The Celts also strongly believed that the line between this world and the next world was thin during “Samhain,” allowing any relatives or friends who had passed from this world to the next with a way to travel back to the celebrating people in the form of black cats.

During the festival, the Celtics would go door to door and collect food from the townsfolk and give them to their gods. Possibly creating the idea of “trick-or- treating” which is so popular today.

Although this information answeres some questions surrouding the Halloween tradion, I found myself asking more.

Like, why costumes? The credit for that can also be given to the Celtic people. During the celebration, the children were doing a lot of night traveling. Being the superstitious people they were, they would dress up in frightening costumes to ward off evil spirits.

But, besides the ancient Celtic other cultures factor into the way Halloween is practiced today. One of these cultures was the Irish.

The Irish had a folk tale in the 18th century about an Irishman named Jack who had tricked the devil into climbing an apple tree. He then trapped the devil by carving a cross into the tree. Thus, making the devil lose his access to heaven. So ,when the devil died he cursed Jack to walk the world aimlessly, only having a chunk of coal to light his path. Then Jack put the burning coal into a dried turnip and used it as a lantern. Therefore, we have Jack-o-lanterns.

And did you think that bobbing for apples was just a Halloween activity to get your face wet?

Or have you hollowed out the apple and hid presents within them? If you’ve done either, then you haven’t heard the first bobbing for apples ritual.

Unmarried people would bob for apples that were attached to strings, and the pair that pulled up the apples attached to the same string would be the next to marry.

The peeling of the apple was also used during Halloween to determine the length of a person’s life. The longer you peeled the apple with out it breaking it off, the longer your life would be.

Halloween really began because of Irish and Scotish rituals. These rituals influenced North America , England and Wales, whith each giving the tradition their own perspective. England gave it a religious meaning, changing the name to “All Saints’ Day” and America changed it into a major folk holiday.

Today, Halloween is the one holiday where the most candy is sold. Americans spend a total of $21 million on Halloween candy yearly.

So, even though the traditions have changed I still consider Halloween to be my favorite holiday.

I will proudly sew my costumes faithfully every year and continue to attend Halloween parties. I will definitely trick or treat, and I will happily indulge in tons and tons of candy!