Happy Halloween 2025
The ancient November first festival called Samhain marked the beginnings of what we know as Halloween these days.The Celts believed the times marked a blurring of those boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead allowing the ghosts of the dead to return to Earth. To ward off any threatening spirits, they would light bonfires and wear costumes.
The holiday became influenced by Christianity and the Eve of All Saints' Day (November 1st) aka All Hallows' Eve, or Halloween.
In my time it marked the end of summer and the harvest. When I was a child there were harvest festivals in rural Aiken County South Carolina and Bingham County, Idaho where I spent large chunks of my childhood in days gone by.
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Over time, the holiday melded with other traditions evolving into a festival with parties, ghost stories, and the traditions of dressing up and going door-to-door for food or money — which eventually became our trick-or-treat tradition for candy and other goodies.
So in this my once favorite time of the year prior to my becoming an old man unsuitable for those antics including the collection of sweets and so forth I wish you and yours a happy Halloween ...
And don't let the spirits get you !