Some people believe that Halloween started with the ancient Celts to celebrate the beginning of winter.

INTRODUCTION

Fall is usually a time of thanks. Hundreds of years ago it was time when people were scared especially at the time of the year when days became shorter. Back then people did not know about the rotation of the earth. A thousand years ago lived people by the name of Celts. The Celts lived in places such as Great Briton and Ireland. One god was named Sanhaim. He was the god of death. The Celtic New Years was on October 31. It is also the date when Sanhaim died. Different people believed Sanhaim came to earth that night to celebrate with others. Some people wore costumes. It was difficult to make costumes that long ago so people killed animals for fur and masks. The Celts made a large fire on that special night. This holiday also marked winter. Some people believe that was the beginning of Halloween.

APPLES

In year 43 AD the Romans began to conquer the Celts. The Romans had many gods and goddesses. One goddess was named Pomana. She was the goddess of fruit. Her special festival was the after Halloween. It was a time to give thanks to all the gods and other goddesses. Pomana 's special sign was an apple. The Romans ruled the Celts for 400 years. During this time Halloween and Pomana 's holiday got mixed up and became one festival. Now an apple is an important sign of Halloween.

JACK-O-LANTERN

Jack-o-Iantern an Irish tale. There was once a man named Jack, who was very very bad. When he died Jack was not sent to heaven he was sent to hell. Jack played very mean and nasty tricks on the devil and on October the 31 Jack got sent out of hell and back to earth. Jack had no place to go so on Halloween night he walked the face of the earth with just one jack-o-lantern made by himself. Now lack-o-lanterns are an important sign of Halloween.

BLACK CATS

People think that black cats bring bad luck on Halloween. There an important role for the cat on Halloween. The black cat is always known as the witches' special pet. The Celts believed that cats were magically humans once-- who knows.

Ghosts, black cats, witches, 'trick or treat', jack-o-lanterns and apples are all symbols of Halloween even today. Many of these symbols go back to the time of the Celts.

"Trick or treating" also comes from Ireland. Long ago people believed in ghosts. Clever Irish farmers made good use of the belief of these people who believed in ghosts. These farmers went to rich homes and demanded food. If the rich people did not listen. the poor farmers would play tricks on their rich neighbours. The farmers pushed wagons away and misplaced things belonging to the richer people. The richer people thought it was possibly a ghost playing these tricks and so they gave the farmers food. That is where some people believe "trick or treating" came from.

GHOSTS

A ghost is dead person that visits a living person. Nowadays people do not believe in ghosts, but long ago they did. The Celts believed that ghosts visited the earth on October 31. Now ghosts are an important sign of Halloween.

WITCHES

Witches were believed to be both men and women. A witch a man or women on Halloween would start a bonfire and all witches would come join and make a feast. Now witches are well known on Halloween.