Tag: halloween

Halloween or Hallowe’en (a contraction of its original title “All Hallows’ Evening”), also known as All Hallows’ Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the eve before the Western Christian feast of All Hallows. According to some scholars, All Hallows’ Eve initially incorporated traditions from pagan harvest festivals and festivals honoring the dead, particularly the Celtic Samhain; other scholars maintain that the feast originated entirely independently of Samhain.
Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (also known as “guising”), attending costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.
The word Halloween was first used in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows’-Even (“evening”), that is, the night before All Hallows’ Day. Although the phrase All Hallows’ is…