Halloween

Halloween, also pronounced Hallowe’en, is a shorter from of All-hallow-even which could be the evening of/before ’All Hallows’ Day’ (also known as All Saints’ Day). In northern Europe, the holiday is celebrated with religious festivities. Halloween was originally known as Samhain, a Pagan festival among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. In the 19th century, many Irish, Scots and other immigrants transported versions of this tradition to North America. This led to the misconception, among many westerns countries; Halloween is a part of American pop culture.

Halloween is celebrated almost all over the western world ñ the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Puerto Rico. Presently some parts of Western Europe joined the celebration as well.

Halloween is mostly celebrated on the night of October 31, mainly by children who dress up in Halloween costumes, fancy dress costumes or wear Halloween masks and go door-to-door to collect sweets, fruits and other gifts. (A variation of this is called trick-or-treat). A carved pumpkin (funny or scary faces), lit from within by a candle is one of Halloween’s most prominent symbols. The traditional colours of Halloween are black and orange but nowadays the colours red, green and purple too are being used prominently for Halloween.