Halloween

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Learn more about citing Wikipedia •Jump to: navigation, search
This article is about the holiday. For other uses, see Halloween (disambiguation).
Halloween
Hallowe\'en

A jack-o\'-lantern
Also called All Hallows Eve
All Saints\' Eve
Samhain
Observed by United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Canada, sometimes Australia and New Zealand and many Latin American countries where it is known as Noche de las Brujas (Night of the Witches)[1]
Type Religious, Cultural (celebrated mostly irrespective of religion)
Significance There are many sources of Halloween\'s significance
Date October 31
Celebrations Trick-or-treating, Bobbing for apples, Costume parties, Carving jack-o\'-lanterns, Bonfires and Fireworks (in Ireland)
Look up Halloween in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.Halloween, or Hallowe\'en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, Halloween festivals, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted houses, carving jack-o-lanterns, and viewing horror films. Halloween originated from the Pagan festival Samhain, celebrated among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain[citation needed]. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in several parts of the western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom and occasionally in parts of Australia and New Zealand.

The term Halloween (and its alternative rendering Hallowe\'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the eve of All Hallows\' Day,[1] also which is now known as All Saints\' Day.

Many European cultural traditions, in particular Celtic cultures, hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent (according to, for example, Catalan mythology about witches and Irish tales of the Sídhe).