Tomorrow is Halloween!

So tomorrow is Halloween and I can’t wait but there was a time in my life that I thought it was bad. I believed that it was an evil holiday for witches and such. I have now come to my senses. It is a fun evening to dress up in a costume and meet your neighbors. You hand out a lot of candy and you get a lot in return.

Our neighborhood has gotten into the spirit of Halloween with a neat tradition called ghosting. You get a bag of candy & goodies with a picture of a ghost and directions. Then you go to a neighbor’s house, leave the bag of candy at the front door, ring the doorbell and run away. Then after being “Ghosted” you place the picture of the ghost on your front door and go ghost 2 other neighbors in the next 2 days. It was fun to do! We also left our phone number for safety.

I looked up the History of Halloween and found it very interesting. It started out in Ireland 2000 years ago. It was the Celtic New Year. This was the time that the Celtic priests thought there was a thin line between the dead & living world so they had a bon fire. They threw vegetables & animals on the fire to appease their gods so that their crops would not fail. They dressed up in costumes, usually animal skins, to ward off evil spirits. When the festival was over they took the flame from the bon fire and re-lit their hearth fires. The name Halloween came to be after the Romans invaded the Celtic land. They had All Saints Day and then All Souls Day which coincided with the Celtic festival. They have now merged into what we have today.
For more info these are my sources:
http://www.history.com/minisites/halloween/viewPage?pageId=713
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

So let me know what do you do for Halloween? Does your neighborhood have any traditions? Or do you avoid the holiday?