i was wondering what this funny business was about, that every year we dress ourselves up silly and walk around town knocking on doors. what started this anyway? so i looked it up.

halloween is based on the christian holy day of “all saints day” or “all souls day”. its roots go back to the celts, signifying the early days of winter which were generally associated with death and darkness in the northern regions. halloween, unlike the mexican day-of-the-dead where you honor and celebrate those whom have past, is a reminder to all us sinners. this of course was adapted from the celts ritual and peppered up with the idea of sin. on this day all the dead saints (the believers) ascend to the heavens, and the lost souls get stuck on earth. the ghosts scurry about,”causing trouble and damaging crops”, and the rest of us undecided fellows on earth (who are still alive) have to then dress-up as ghouls and ghosts, (or pimps and prostitutes these days) to hide from the real ghosts. the pumpkin is the american version of the european turnip, as it’s more prevalent on this land. back then, turnips were carved out and used as lanterns and placed on the door steps to ward off “evil spirits”. now, the pumpkins are made of russell stover’s chocolate intended to chubby up the little children more than the evil spirits. anyhow, this is the story of how halloween came to be. isn’t it funny that even today we still follow all this silly stuff? by dd