h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ok... in America we dress up as ghosts, goblins, pirates, and princesses, angels and devils, black cats and pumpkins, witches and clowns, hippies, and nuns, doctors and heros, and ::Sigh:: -- all for HALLOWEEN, a pagan(and now commercial) holiday.

It began as All Hallow's Eve(I think), when Wiccans(witches-- people of the pagan belief) believed that the "curtain" to the realm of the dead was at its thinnest. It was a festival to honor the dead and the spiritual world(kinda like the Spanish Day of the Dead). It has nothing to do with the devil.

HALLOWEEN is my favorite. We buy candy and give it out to kids as they traverse neighborhoods at night, knocking on doors and shouting "TRICK OR TREAT" to the hapless soul who answers.

Good fun.

Traditional decorations are jack-o-laterns(pumpkins with their insides scooped out, and faces carved on their rind... these have candles placed within and then lighted...), false spiderwebs, cauldrons(reminiscent of witches), scarecrows, and graveyards(many times just big old pieces of cardboard decorated to resemble tombstones stood up in one's frontyard, autumn leaves heaped around for added effect).

Bobbing for apples is rumored to be a popular game at HALLOWEEN parties...

Sorry. I just don't get Halloween. (this probably stems from never being allowed to go trick-or treating as a child, but then nobody ever was round here)
So hardly anyone actually believes in all hallows eve, half of those who do frown on the occult, for the other half its more of a religious thing and so the commercialisation is all wrong, and for the general public it's a good excuse to go round demanding and gorging on sweets?
No real presents, no family-at-the-fireside atmosphere, no songs, no special food, and no real cause for celebration.
Forgive me if I miss the point. Please prove me wrong. I may just be brought up wrong and embittered.

We might all miss the point these days. In Welsh the day is Calangaeaf, "Winter's Eve". The day was a religious festival whose real details we may never know. Like all such festivals its origin may well have had a lot to do with the practicalities of Winter drawing near. It may well have had much more of a community element in its day.
Later religions (i.e. Christianity) had to stamp out these things and probably changed the fundamental point. By calling November 1st "All Saints Day" they tried to change spirits into saints. The truth is lost forever but the residue remains.

::Accidently steps in the residue::

HALLOWEEN is my favorite because I can dress up and be someone else for an evening(or the whole day). I love the smell of a freshly cut pumpkin, I love the texture of pumpkin flesh... I love candles and cauldrons...

It's all such fun for me, and I find a high in night-time journeys from door-to-door. It is interesting to see what decorations neighbors come up with...

For me, it is mostly nostalgia(and I see it as a sort of-- now commercialized-- means of honor for an ancient religion that I should probably study more than I have), and kind admiration for ghosts and goblins...

How can anything be taken seriously anymore!?? Capitalism... phah!!! Please pass the witch's brew regardless!!!

Hallowe'en was originally the Celtic festival of Samhain (the 'mh' is silent, so it is pronounced 'saue-in' ('saue' as in sauerkraut). It marked the end of the Celtic year, and since the new year didn't begin until sunrise the next day, the night was considered to be 'in between' and nowhere at the same time. Hence the belief that the otherworlds, which were normally seperate from our own, were for that night rubbing shoulders with our world and literally anything could happen. Bonfires were lit and kept blazing throughout the night, presumably to keep evil spirits at bay. Bonfires are still lit the length and breadth of the country in Ireland today, though only by youths looking for a bit of craic and not to keep people and property safe from marauding spirits.

Hallowe'en was originally the Celtic festival of Samhain (the 'mh' is silent, so it is pronounced 'saue-in' ('saue' as in sauerkraut). It marked the end of the Celtic year, and since the new year didn't begin until sunrise the next day, the night was considered to be 'in between' and nowhere at the same time. Hence the belief that the otherworlds, which were normally seperate from our own, were for that night rubbing shoulders with our world and literally anything could happen. Bonfires were lit and kept blazing throughout the night, presumably to keep evil spirits at bay. Bonfires are still lit the length and breadth of the country in Ireland today, though only by youths looking for a bit of craic and not to keep people and property safe from marauding spirits.