Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31st. The most common colors of the day are orange and black. Halloween comes from the ancient Cel festival Samhain.
The ancient Celts believed that on October 31st, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the living and the deceased is not clear, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops.
On Halloween, the ancient Celts would place a skeleton by their window to represent the dead. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body, containing the spirit and knowledge, the Celts used the "head" of the vegetable to decorate their houses.
On this day people often wear strange clothes as characters in horrible novels or movies to frighten others.
People usually to dress as ghosts, skeletons, or witches. Now Halloween is an official holiday in almost all European countries.
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Halloween`s origins date back to the ancient Cel festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Cel priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter. To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Cel deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other`s fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter. By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Cel territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Cel lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Cel celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is praced today on Halloween. By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Cel lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints` Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Cel festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints` Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls` Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints`, All Saints`, and All Souls`, were called Hallowmas.
