Halloween is a popular festival in many countries all over the world and every year it seems to get bigger it's getting dark earlier and it's starting to get cold Christmas is still a long way away we need something to cheer us up and take our minds off the fact that winter is nearly here find out some more about the traditional festival of Halloween the origins of the name the festival Halloween has its roots in Celtic and Roman traditions over 2,000 years ago the Celts in Britain Ireland and parts of France celebrated sahlan to mark the
beginning of winter when the Romans invaded they merged this with fur alia their celebration of the passing of the Dead as Christianity spread the church tried to replace these pagan feasts with official church holy days one of these was November the first it was called All Saints Day or All Hallows and October the 31st was known as All Hallows Eve and then Halloween Halloween traditions in the past there was a tradition called soling poor people went around houses asking for food in exchange they promised to say prayers for the dead people no longer go soling
but the habit has been transformed into a modern Halloween game for children in America who dress up as ghosts witches and monsters and go around people's houses asking for sweets this game is called trick-or-treat witches Halloween wouldn't be fun without witches witches have always been part of popular folklore Shakespeare's play Macbeth opens with three witches a witch was someone usually a woman who had special powers and had dealings with the devil the American town Salem in the state of Massachusetts is famous for the Witchcraft Trials which took place there in 1692 pumpkins the pumpkin has
become a symbol of Halloween people empty a pumpkin cut a face into the side and put a candle inside to make a lamp it's known as a jack-o'-lantern from an Irish legend about a man called Jack who made a deal with the devil animals fat cats frogs mice and spiders are just some of the animals associated with Halloween generally the more unpleasant the animal the stronger the Halloween connection nocturnal animals like bats a particular favorite and if as is the case with vampire bats they like drinking blood they are high on the Halloween list [Music]
