Halloween
By: Angela Ramirez
There are many reasons to celebrate halloween; the haunted mansions, old witches, the funny or scary costumes, pumpkin carvings, and the joy of going trick-or-treating and getting a lot of candy, kids at each house demanding sweets, snacks, and small gifts.
Halloween is a widely celebrated tradition amongst a lot of Americans. In the beginning of October you start seeing very decorated houses, and stores become full of candy ready, for customers to buy. Halloween it the biggest celebration that sells the most candy in the United States, and an enjoyed day filled with mystery, magic, and superstition. Halloween is celebrated on October 31, and it has its roots in the ancient, pre Christian-Celtic festival of Samhain. They believed that putting wine and food outside their doors would keep the bad spirits away from them. Halloween came to America when European immigrants arrived there, bringing their customs with them. Taking from the Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in many different costumes and going house to house and ask for food or money, a practice that eventually became our “trick- or -treat”, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. In the late 1800s, there was a movement in America to turn Halloween into a holiday more about community, neighborly get-togethers, ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. The parties focus on games, foods of the season and festive costumes.