All Hallows Eve, or All Saints Day, is a holiday celebrated worldwide, except in Christian countries such as Turkey and Palestine. Because the Christian population believes that Halloween is a pagan holiday.
Halloween is one of the many days of the year when people can dress up as their favorite character, monster, etc, and go around house to house getting candy.
History.com says that this holiday originated 2,000 years ago, in the middle of the 9th century. People in Europe celebrated the end of the harvest and the start of a new year. This was a festival called Samhain.
This also marks the beginning of Winter, which the Celts associated with death. The Celtic people believed the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest. When the trees start shedding their leaves and the land goes cold, that’s when the veil is believed to be the thinnest.
During this festival, the people would light bonfires and wear monster costumes to ward off ghosts and have another year of good crops.
Samhain, throughout the years, turned into a worldwide holiday that went through many names.
A lot of families have their own traditions for Halloween. Senior Morgan Smith and his family have a little competition each year.
“My tradition is that we do a family Halloween costume competition, to see who makes the best costume,” Smith said. “We all vote for the winner.”
Smith and some of his friends are competing with him to try and win the family costume competition.
“So, I’m trick or treating, but me and my buddies are going as grandmas, and we’re bringing a door with us,” Smith said. “So we’re gonna knock on people’s doors and when they open the door they’re gonna see another door in front of them that says ‘PLEASE KNOCK,’ when they knock we’re gonna open the door and compliment them on their costume and give them candy.”
Halloween is a time for scary things, and what’s more scary than monsters of the night. The classics such as the vampire or the werewolf are beloved worldwide. Senior Braiden Hawks says that his favorite monster is the skin-walker.
“I like it ’cause it’s interesting,” Hawks exclaimed.
The skin-walker is a witch summoned by the Navajo Native American tribe. It is said that the skin-walker can disguise itself as any animal.
