Hallowe’en is the eve of All Saints Day, which is celebrated by Eastern Chrsitians on the Sunday after Pentecost and by Western Christians on 1 November.

It originated in the 3rd and early 4th centuries, when Christians were persecuted and large numbers were killed by the authorities of the Roman Empire. Some of them were remembered by name on the day of their deaths, but there were countless others whose names had been forgotten and so a day was set aside to remember them.

Eventually itr was broadened to include all saints, and not just martyrs, and the celebration started the evening before and was extended for the next week, which was called All Saints Tide or All Hallows Tide. In Orthodox Churches it is always on the Sunday after Pentecost, and the following Sunday is usually reserved for commemorating all the saints of a particular country or region, so some will commemorate All Saints of Russia, or All Saints of Greece, or All Saints of Africa, or All Saints of America.

Samhain is considered the time when the ‘door’ to the other world opens and dead communicates with the earthly beings. It also traces routes from All Hallow’s Eve and All Saint’s Day celebrated in many parts of the world.

Thus,to scare the dead away from their homes, the Irish people started placing lanterns carved of turnips outside their home.

However, when the Irish migrated to North America, the land of Pumpkins, they couldn’t find much turnips and started crafting the Pumpkins, which were much ideally suited for the purpose.

On Halloween, the entire city lights up in excitement. There are ghosts, pumpkins and spirits everywhere that don’t scare us at all. Well, some of us are scared though and the fear of Halloween is known as Samhainophobia. It’s in the people that are too afraid to leave their homes in Halloween. Basically it happens to those who’re normally afraid of ghosts, which is pretty common. There are so many ghosts around that even the real ghosts would be hiding somewhere so conveniently among them in the garb of Halloween.

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• This is with regard to the celebration of Halloween.

• Since Halloween is a celebration that has its roots in Celtic pagan rituals called Samhain

• The American Halloween grew out of Mischief Night and the Scottish Hallow’een of Scotch-Irish Americans