1. HALLOWEEN
AUTOMATIC

2. Halloween had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead.

3. The festival observed at this time was called Samhain
The festival observed at this time was called Samhain. It was the biggest and most significant holiday of the Celtic year.

4. The Celts believed that at the time of Samhain, more so than any other time of the year, the ghosts of the dead were able to mingle with the living, because at Samhain the souls of those who had died during the year traveled into the otherworld.

5. Samhain became the Halloween we are familiar with when Christian missionaries attempted to change the religious practices of the Celtic people.

6. Halloween, a time of magic, also became a day of divination, with a host of magical beliefs:

7. for instance, if people hold a mirror on Halloween and walk backwards down the stairs to the basement, the face that appears in the mirror will be their next lover.

8. Halloween is a holiday of many mysterious customs, but each one has a history, or at least a story behind it.

9. To this day, witches, ghosts, and skeleton figures of the dead are among the favorite disguises.

10. Halloween, is a truly magical holiday, full of tricks and treats, costumed revelers, spooky "haunted" houses, and ghosts and witches and bats, oh my!....

11. "When you hear the owls hooting, Get your jack o' lantern out, Put on your shroud and hurry, For ghosts should be about."

12. © October/2008
-English Version-