Halloween: behind the candycorn

What Halloween is all about
Today it is celebrated as much as any season of the year. We meet with family and friends and take part in this annual ritual. Obviously today, this event involves harmless fun intended for enjoyment. It is about celebrating the horror, scariness, and mystic of this day through trendy costumes and splurging on candy! Yes, like most holidays the commercial aspect has drowned the true meaning.
So off we go traveling to strangers' homes around the neighborhood to collect that reward- candy! Most everyone can recall what they dressed up for Halloween. Whether it have been a cheesy pop icon or monster from beyond the grave, the point is that you enjoyed yourself. We find ourselves venturing into supposed haunted hayrides and haunted houses. Of course, many of these places don't really spook, but enjoying the experience with family and friends is truly what makes this fun.
What is Halloween without a pumpkin? Did you know the Irish are the people who began the tradition? In the beginning, they used Turnips, but when they immigrated to America and found the vibrant crop of pumpkins, they carried on the tradition using pumpkins.
Sure, the environment of Halloween is always memorable. The days are shorter, it is often colder, and the persistent sound of the leaves crunching, swooshing beneath your feet.

Ultimately, it is not going to be the load of sweets you rake in during Halloween, but rather the moments shared with friends and family. So carve a few pumpkins, and venture into a cemetery to tell ghost stories. Someone or something may be there to deliver that scare you so desire.

Many Hold the Tradition of picking the pumpkin patch to make their own jack o'lanterns

Early History of Halloween
source: history channel.com

Celts Following...
Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.