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The festival of Halloween is celebrated on October 31st each year. It falls on the day before All Saints’ Day. The Halloween History has its roots in the Christian All Saints’ Day and the Celtic festival of Samhain. The festival originated in Ireland and is now a secular celebration. Later Irish immigrants carried this tradition to North America. The traditional colors of Halloween are orange and black. Halloween traditions and customs include carving jack-o'-lantern and activities like trick-or-treating, ghost tours, reading scary stories, costume parties, bonfires etc.
History of Halloween
The Celtic festival of Samhain was celebrated over 2000 years ago in the areas of Ireland, United Kingdom and northern France. It was celebrated at the end of the harvest season was also known as ‘Celtic New Year’. It was also a time when Celtic pagans took stock of supplies and livestock before the winter. It was believed that on Halloween, the world of the living and the dead became one. The dead caused various problems to the living through damaged crops or sickness. The festival included bonfires where the Celts would burn the slaughtered bones of livestock. They wore masks and costumes to pacify the evil spirits. In Scotland, young men wore masks, blackened their faces or dressed in white to copy the dead.
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