4 Scary and Fun Halloween arrives at the end of October every year This holiday brings thrills chills candy and fun It is a time to dress up in costumes and imagine you are anything you want to be You can be a superhero or a villain You can be any sort of animal from an elephant to a ladybug You can be a pirate a vampire a princess or even a cupcake You can use your creativity to transform yourself for the night Halloween is a time for dressing in scary or silly costumes
5 Some people hang decorations of ghosts witches and skeletons on doors and windows Some people visit haunted houses Many families wait until dark to ring doorbells and collect treats Others go to parties where there are costume contests They play games such as bobbing for apples or carve pumpkins into jack-o lanterns They play tricks and try not to eat too many treats Whether your celebrations are scary or fun or both you can use your creativity to make Halloween a memorable holiday A spooky jack-o lantern makes a great addition to your Halloween decorations
6 An Ancient Holiday Trick-or-treating is one of Halloween’s most fun traditions Do you go trick-or-treating Do you dress up in costumes Many of our Halloween traditions have a long history More than 2,000 years ago the Celts of Europe celebrated a holiday a lot like our modern-day Halloween They held a festival called Samhain pronounced SAH-wun that they celebrated around November 1 Samhain marked the end of the summer harvest and the beginning of winter
7 The Celts believed that spirits of the dead came back to walk the earth during Samhain People gathered around bonfires wore costumes danced and paraded They left gifts of food for the spirits In the seventh century the Christian church made Samhain a holiday to remember all the Christian saints It was considered a holy or hallow day They called it All Hallows Day later renamed All Saints Day The night before was All Hallows Eve or Halloween Today we celebrate Halloween on October 31 November 1 is still All Saints Day on the church calendar This Halloween you might continue some of the ancient Celtic traditions Trick-or-treaters dress up in costumes and go from house to house asking for candy Figures of the dead such as ghosts and skeletons are still popular symbols of the holiday Many people use ghosts and other spooky symbols to decorate their houses for Halloween
