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The Origins of Halloween Traditions

October 26, 2021

Posted by: Heather Thomas

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Carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and wearing scary costumes are some of the time-honored traditions of Halloween. Yet, the Halloween holiday has its roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (a Gaelic word pronounced “SAH-win”), a pagan religious celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of summer, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor saints. Soon after, All Saints Day came to incorporate some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before All Saints Day was known as All Hallows Eve , and later, Halloween. Here is a look at the origins of some of the classic Halloween traditions we know today.

Carving Jack-o’-Lanterns

The tradition of carving Jack-o’-Lanterns originated in Ireland using turnips instead of pumpkins. It is allegedly based on a legend about a man named Stingy Jack who repeatedly trapped the Devil and only let him go on the condition that Jack would never go to Hell. But when Jack died, he learned that Heaven did not want his soul either, so he was forced to wander the Earth as a ghost for eternity. The Devil gave Jack a burning lump of coal in a carved-out turnip to light his way. Locals eventually began carving scary faces into their own turnips to frighten away evil spirits.

Seeing Ghosts

The festival of Samhain marked the transition to the new year at the end of the harvest and beginning of the winter. Celtic people believed that during the festival, spirits walked the Earth. Later on, Christian missionaries introduced All Souls’ Day on November 2, which perpetuated the idea of the living coming into contact with the dead around the same time of year. 

In order to avoid being terrorized by all the evil spirits walking the Earth during Samhain, the Celts donned disguises in order to confuse the spirits and be left alone. 

Trick-or-Treating 

There is much debate around the origins of trick-or-treating, but generally there are three theories. The first theory suggests that during Samhain, Celtic people would leave food out to appease the spirits traveling the Earth at night . Over time, people began to dress as these unearthly beings in exchange for similar offerings of food and drink. 

The second theory speculates that the candy boon stems from the Scottish practice of guising, which is a secular version of “souling.” During the Middle Ages, generally children and poor adults would collect food and money from local homes in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls’ Day . Guisers dropped the prayers in favor of non-religious practices with the inclusion of songs, jokes, and other “tricks.”

A third theory argues that modern American trick-or-treating stems from “ belsnickeling ,” a German-American Christmas tradition where children would dress in costume and then call on their neighbors to see if the adults could guess the identities of the disguised. In one version of the practice, the children were rewarded with food or other treats if no one could identify them.

The idea of being spooked by black cats dates back to the Middle Ages, when these dark felines were considered a symbol of the Devil. It didn’t help that centuries later, accused witches were often found to have cats, particularly black ones. People began to believe that the cats were a witch’s “familiar” –supernatural entities that would assist in their practice of dark magic–and black cats and spookiness have been linked ever since. 

Black and Orange

The traditional Halloween colors of black and orange also traces back to the Celtic festival of Samhain. For the Celts, black represented the “death” of summer while the orange symbolized the autumn harvest season. 

Bobbing for Apples

The game of bobbing for apples has been a staple at Halloween parties for many years, but its origins are more rooted in love and romance. The game traces back to a courting ritual that was part of a Roman festival honoring Pomona , the goddess of agriculture and abundance. While multiple versions existed, the gist was that young men and women would be able to predict their future relationships based on the game. When the Romans conquered the British Isles in 43 AD, the Pomona festival blended with the similarly timed Samhain, a precursor to Halloween.

Playing pranks often varies by region, but the pre-Halloween tradition known as “ Devil’s Night ,” is credited to a different origin depending on the source. Some say that pranks started as part of May Day celebrations. But Samhain, and eventually All Souls Day, also included good-natured mischief. When Irish and Scottish immigrants came to America, they brought with them the tradition of celebrating Mischief Night as part of Halloween.

Lighting Candles and Bonfires

For much of the early history of Halloween, towering bonfires were used to light the way for souls seeking the afterlife. These days, lighting candles have generally replaced the large traditional blazes. 

Candy Apples

For centuries, people have been coating fruit in syrup as a means of preservation. But during the Roman festival of Pomona, the goddess was often represented by and associated with apples ; her name derives from the Latin word for apple “pomum” and the fruit is at the heart of harvest celebrations. It is believed that candy apples were invented accidentally in 1908 by William W. Kolb, a candymaker in Newark, New Jersey. As the story goes, Kolb was experimenting with red cinnamon candy to sell at Christmastime and he dipped apples on sticks into the red glaze and put them in his shop window to showcase his new candy. But instead of selling the candies, he ended up selling the apples to customers who thought they looked good enough to eat. They became fashionable treats for Halloween starting in the early 1900s and they remained popular up until the 1970s.

Bats were likely present at the earliest proto-Halloween celebrations, not just symbolically but literally. As part of Samhain, Celts lit large bonfires, which attracted insects, which in turn, attracted bats. Soon spotting bats became connected with the festival. Medieval folklore expanded upon the eeriness of bats with a number of superstitions built around the belief that bats were harbingers of death. 

Devouring Candy

The act of going door-to-door for handouts has long been a part of Halloween revelries. But until the mid-20th century, the “treats” children received were not necessarily candy. Things like fruit, nuts, coins, and toys were just as likely to be given out. Trick-or-treating rose in popularity in the 1950s and it inspired candy companies to market small, individually wrapped candies. People began to favor the confections out of convenience, but candy did not dominate at the exclusion of all other treats until the 1970s when parents started fearing anything unwrapped.

A candymaker at the Wunderle Candy Company in Philadelphia is sometimes credited with inventing the tri-colored candy in the 1880s. But candy corn did not become a widespread sensation until the Goelitz Company brought the candy to the masses in 1898. Candy corn was originally called “Chicken Feed” and it sold in boxes with the slogan “Something worth crowing for.” Initially, it was just an autumnal candy because of corn’s association with harvest time. Candy corn later became Halloween-specific when trick-or-treating grew in popularity in the U.S. during the 1950s. 

What are some other Halloween traditions that you enjoy? Share them in the comments.

Discover more:

• Search Chronicling America * to find more historical newspaper coverage of Halloween traditions and more!
• Use this Halloween topics page as a guide to help you with search strategies and links to related articles in Chronicling America.
• Look through this research guide on Halloween and Día de Muertos resources found at the Library of Congress created by the American Folklife Center. * The Chronicling America historic newspapers online collection is a product of the National Digital Newspaper Program and jointly sponsored by the Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities .

Comments (50)

Well thats pretty neat and such

càng thêm các mục kinh dị nữa nhé hay quá

I can’t wait anymore for Halloween.

The Romans did not conquer all of the British Isles. The couldn’t defeat Caledonia (now Scotland) and built 2 walls to keep us out.

As an older adult, I most enjoy that post Halloween (which is the pinnacle of scary costumes, purposeful spookiness, acceptable door to door begging (with the unwritten rule that if the homeowner lacks good treats – the children can toilet paper the house or light a flaming bag of dog poo, and ring the bell with no recourse, but be seen as “having done the right thing for the suckers that are too selfish”) – that what follows post Halloween are the holidays of inviting everyone to the table to enjoy a meal and great conversation as we share in the abundance of harvest and togetherness – and then requiring children to show us how good they “can” be as we determine what their end of year reward(s) for having done so might be. It’s a bizarre series of events.

why thay have wich is in Halloween movie and trik trik

Celebrations like Halloween are in conflict with Bible teachings. The Bible warns: “There must never be anyone among you who . . . practices divination, who is soothsayer, augur or sorcerer, who uses charms, consults ghosts or spirits, or calls up the dead.”—Deuteronomy 18:10, 11, The Jerusalem Bible; see also Leviticus 19:31; Galatians 5:19-21. In view of the foregoing, it is wise for you to know about the dark origins of Halloween and similar celebrations. Having this fuller understanding may move you to join many others who do not participate in these holidays.

I RLLY ENJOYED THIS TYSM FOR SHARING IT

Not a mention of this in Kansas..?

https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/halloween/12078

Thank you so much. All most interesting. Cheers.

Candied Apples are still in style.

I think it’s everything so beaautiful.

this was very very helpful im writing a essay for school and this helped alot 5 stars out of 5 stars thanks alot for this

It’s always good to research and also be educated on topics . I don’t celebrate Halloween, but still enjoy seeing children dressed in sweet costumes. So sad those who have taken the joy out of a child’s pastime event.

i needed this for a project and got a 100 thx

i thought it was cool how it started of craving pumpkins

Article is very confuseing

Grace, Age 15

wow i lean so much from this

This article is amazing, couldn’t have read anything better in 6th block.

Halloween has been a long-time mystery that I’ve wanted to figure out. I think it’s very attractive on paper as well as literally. I think it’s one of the more obscure holidays in terms of endearment and the way it presents itself. It is so eerie but brings much joy, which is very contrasting. Overall, I do believe it’s a very enigmatic but purposeful event.

Wonderful Information

Wow 30 cents for candy my son would be die

Wonderful information

Being Irish , it drives me nuts that Americans have high-Jacked our Halloween tradition well ours and the Scots..only joking it is funny though …we original used Turnips not Pumpkins, Pumpkins are so much easy to carve. The kids dress up in scary costumes and go house to house in search of sweets (candy) but we don’t do trick or treat.We do bobbing for apples & also we also duck for money in a basin of water. Finally , we make a special cake its a spiced tea bracket called a Barm Brack. You normally put money in it and a ring.Halloween wasn’t very popular in the UK when I was young but now its huge thanks to the US. Cheers

Just an observation as I am looking in to this to understand the origin for personal research purposes. For the “seeing ghosts” subheading it says that christians are the ones who introduced “All Souls Day” however the link provided shows a news paper article labeled “The Catholic Times.” Just wanted to point that out as some would argue that though fundamentally they have the same belief, their traditions and culture are quite different.

TLDR: It was the Catholics, not the Christians who included “All Souls Day” in the picture. I just like things to be specific.

Why do people think Halloween is Satanic. This is not true at all.

I want halloween already

add something about salem and there witch trials

i like pumpkins

Zoie, that is a totally different subject.

Jeff M, Halloween does not go against what is written in the Bible. There may be some religions or groups that conjure, worship dark spirits, etc, etc. That is totally different than what Halloween is. Please re-read article for a better understanding.

Why didn’t you mention that the druids on All Hallows Eve sacrificed children and black cats in the bonfire to the God of the Dead

Joe, Catholics are Christians…

Except ancient pagan Celts had been destroyed by the Romans in the 1st c. AD and All Saints Day was originally on May 13 and had nothing whatever to do with Samhain. See https://aquinasonline.com/2021/10/27/is-halloween-a-pagan-festival/

do this festival bring bad luck to people’s homes.?

Bonfires are still very much a part of holloween in Ireland so much so firefighters are not allowed to take holidays on this day and it is generally their busiest day of the year .

I think this article was well done. Very helpful for understanding the origins of many Halloween traditions. This is a great resource for explaining Halloween’s roots to those who claim that celebrating it is sinful. I’m a Christian from a Christian home and we’ve always celebrated Halloween, and that does not make us “evil” or “false” or “misguided”. It’s the presentation of the holiday that has been manipulated by sin, not the holiday itself. God has warned us to guard our hearts and told us to show Christ in all we do, so we can still celebrate Halloween joyfully as long as we’re being wise and mindful. The evil is in devil worship and pagan systems, not in thrilling decorations and dressing up and trick-or-treating and staying out late. There are many believers who condemn their fellow Christians for celebrating Halloween and this is so wrong! Some of them find Halloween sinful merely because they don’t really know its history, which is why articles like this are incredibly helpful! (Also, of course, alongside evidence from the Bible!) The traditions of Halloween vary in different places in the world, but as long as you stay away from anything that’s satanic or willfully harmful to others, you can celebrate Halloween in whatever way you’re most comfortable! If you still choose not to celebrate, that’s okay! Just know that you have the freedom to celebrate if you want to, and that it’s not okay to bash on others who do make that choice! Thanks again for this article. I hope anyone who reads it will learn something new! I also hope that anyone who reads this comment will feel encouraged or enlightened by what I wanted to share! Super excited to celebrate Halloween and I pray for safety and joy for everyone who’s going to be trick-or-treating this year! :)

now I love Halloween what are you for Halloween?

I LOVE HALLOWEEN ITS SO SPOOKY

hap hallween every1

I used to love to dress up in a scary costume and go out Trick or Treating on Halloween night with my pillow case and get lots of candy

very nice I feel well informed

If you add All Souls’ Day , all saints Day, contacting the Dead, Ghost and Goblins, Witch’s and superstitions about Black Cats, Tricks and Treats which one has to be very careful about the treats nowadays, you surely don’t have anything good about Halloween, so as a Born Again Believer in JESUS CHRIST I will not participate in Halloween or any other holiday connected to Satan and Satanic activities. Fall Festival’s, Trunk and Treat, along with other things the so called Church has on Halloween, I don’t participate in either. Have you time with evil and I’ll try my best to follow the HOLY WORD OF GOD AND THE LEADERSHIP AND GUIDANCE OF GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT.

All the free candy Getting to be a character Making your own costumes The darkness of the night Craftiness of my company Getting to be out with your friends Looking at house decorations Going for a walk in the neighborhoods

Celebrating halloween shouldn’t be allowed, who else thinks so? There to much drug candy these days.

I think this relates to Ancient Rome because they both have something to do with religous thoughts. Like they created a day to “scare” away the ghost that came back to earth to visit.

Enjoyable to read! Fun history! I read somewhere that on Oct 31, the “veil” between heaven & earth, or the living & the dead is lifted & spirits of the dead are allowed, on that one night, to roam the earth.

Awesome article.

I love the pictures of the kids in costume.

Old Halloween was actually the 11/11, old Hallow is a pagan god, often depicted as the grim reaper, the scythe represents end of the harvest. When the Christians commited genocide of the pagans and changed the date and turned 11/11 to Martinmas. They did the same thing to imbalc when pagans worshiped the goddess of light on 2/2, the Christians changed it to candlemas. St Bridgid’s day to st Brigit’s day (she wrote the lord’s prayer. Hallow be thy name.

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Why Do We Celebrate Halloween?

Halloween has been around for more than a thousand years. Originally a religious observance, it became increasingly secular over the centuries until its religious trappings all but disappeared. Today Halloween is considered a holiday for dress-up and fun, especially for children.

Halloween’s origins can be traced back to the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain , which was held on November 1 in contemporary calendars. It was believed that on that day, the souls of the dead returned to their homes, so people dressed in costumes and lit bonfires to ward off spirits. In this way, popular Halloween tropes such as witches, ghosts, and goblins became associated with the holiday.

In the 7th century CE, Pope Boniface IV created All Saints Day , originally celebrated on May 13. A century later, Pope Gregory III moved the holiday to November 1, likely as a Christian substitute for the pagan festival of Samhain. The day before the saintly celebration became known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween.

Though the holiday began in Celtic regions of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and France, it quickly spread to other parts of the world. The first American colonists in New England were forbidden to celebrate it for religious reasons, though it enjoyed some popularity in the Southern colonies. By the 1800s, fall festivals marking the seasonal harvest incorporated Halloween elements, and Irish immigrants escaping the devastating Potato Famine brought with them many Halloween traditions that remain today.

The custom of trick-or-treating, in which children dress up in costume and solicit treats from neighbors, became popular in the United States in the early 20th century as Irish and Scottish communities revived the Old World custom of “guising,” in which a person would dress in costume and tell a joke, recite a poem, or perform some other trick in exchange for a piece of fruit or other treat. By 1950, trick-or-treating for candy had become one of Halloween’s most popular activities. Today, Halloween is one of the biggest holidays for candy sales in the United States, estimated to be more than $3 billion, according to the National Retail Federation.

Halloween: A Mystic and Eerie Significance

Despite the prevalence of tricks and spooky spirits in earlier years, the American commercial holiday didn’t develop until the middle of the twentieth century.

Halloween festivities as we know them today in the United States are a very recent invention. Before the twentieth century, folks had little inclination or incentive to hand out sweet treats to costumed youth, with All Hallows’ Eve largely understood as a vaguely creepy pan-cultural pagan holdover invoking the fall festival of Samhain . In Holy-Days and Holidays , a pious compendium edited by Edward Mark Deems in 1902, the holiday only appears as an adjunct to All Saints’ Day on November 1st. “The day was popularly called All Hallow’s Day,” he writes, “whence it became the custom to call the evening before All-hallow e’en, and in Scotland and Ireland certain sports and festivities, said to be relics of Druidism, were indulged in.”

While other holidays added themselves in bold-face type to the calendar following the Civil War and seem quite similar in celebration even today (take Anna Jarvis’s invention of Mother’s Day in 1908 or President Lincoln’s proclamation of a November Thanksgiving), Halloween was slow to emerge in its modern form. Leigh Erich Schmidt considers the rise of the commercial American holiday from 1870 to 1930 , when popular economic thinking led to the consideration of holidays not as useless obstacles to a full working week, but opportunities to profit off special occasions: “In the decades following the Civil War,” Schmidt writes, “merchants, advertisers, and window trimmers set themselves up as the new high priests of American calendary celebrations, significantly changing the rubrics of American holidays.”

Even if Halloween was slow to arrive in the department stores and stationers of America, not to mention its candy manufacturers, this by no means suggests that All Hallows’ Eve was a quiet occasion in its early years. Old Yankee harvest traditions and beliefs in witchcraft combined with the Halloween traditions of Irish immigrants to America, resulting in a day of spooky suppositions and puckish mischief.

October 31st was mostly known and celebrated as an inherently ghostly day, holding a “ mystic and eerie significance ” in both pagan and Christian cosmology, according to Yale anthropologist Ralph Linton, writing in 1951. All that supernatural activity allegedly lifted the veil that normally kept the secrets of the spirit world obscured from daily view, and in many circles it was thought that “ every peasant implicitly believes that the fairies and other supernatural beings have double power over the destinies of mortals .” Divination party games were therefore popular, many using the fruits of the fall harvest and most directed at helping women figure out who Mr. Right might be. In these games, women “threw apple peelings over their shoulders to determine the initials of their future bridegrooms,” bobbed for apples, or predicted the future from bits of string or roasting chestnuts.

It was also known as a night for pranks. The anthropologist Cindy Dell Clark, in an examination of social norms around modern Halloween , notes that in a 1975 column for Redbook magazine, Margaret Mead expressed nostalgia for the mischief nights of her youth, when kids could play out the sense that “Halloween was the one occasion when people could safely invoke the help of the devil in some enterprise.” Mead recalled a Halloween celebration characterized by harmless pranks, and looking back from the mid-1970s, complained that the holiday’s pranks had taken on a sharper, more destructive aspect.

Mead was perhaps glossing things over a bit in remembering her childhood Halloweens as full of harmless antics. Teenagers in the 1970s, armed with eggs and toilet paper, couldn’t hold a candle to pranks of the early 1900s, including a Connecticut incident in which pranksters loaded a wagon with trash, set it on fire, and pushed the whole lot downhill toward trees, setting them ablaze; and another in which boys “managed to suspend a sleigh from a two-story building and perch another awkwardly by the roadside.” And Linton painted a terrifying mental picture about early holiday celebrations, noting that “the prevalence of indoor plumbing has taken much of the sport out of Halloween.”

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In one South Dakota town (population: less than 18,000) in 1932, the mischief of Halloween night “brought general property damage in excess of five thousand dollars, and left the streets and avenues in the city strewn with 135 truckloads of junk and refuse.” Describing the aftermath of a day he nicknamed “ Hell-o-e’en ,” the local school superintendent came up with a plan to host a school Halloween party and barbecue in the hopes of taming Mischief Night and saving the police, who he said were “out-generaled [and] out-manoeuvred” by a “triumphant army of boys.”

Despite the prevalence of high jinks, it wasn’t until the middle of the twentieth century that the modern commercial holiday started to coalesce, guided by the rise of everything from the Great Pumpkin and cult horror cinema to licensed costume fare and urban legends about razor blades in the candy. So, too, did Halloween move beyond anonymous pranks and private parties to become publicly performative , inviting participants parade down the streets, to see and be seen, evoke and invoke modern pop culture trends and characters, and yes: try to eat an entire bucket of Sweet Tarts in one evening.

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Essay on Halloween / What is Helloween festival?

Introduction to halloween.

An essay on Halloween: Halloween is a fantastic opportunity to get together with friends and family for some spooky fun ! Halloween is celebrated in a variety of ways, but one of the most popular is trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating is a Halloween tradition in which children, and occasionally adults, dress up in costumes and go door to door in their neighborhood asking for candy.

Many individuals also use Halloween decorations such as ghosts, goblins, and witches to decorate their homes. Halloween is a great time for everyone to have a good time!

Origin of Halloween

The 31st of October is Halloween. All Hallows’ Eve is also known as All Saints’ Eve. This is because some believe the holiday has its origins in a Christian celebration commemorating the deceased.

Others claim that the celebration has its origins in Ireland’s old harvest season rituals. However, in the United States, the focus is less on remembrances of the fallen and more on agriculture. It involves children dressing up in frightening costumes and going door to door begging for candy. Trick-or-treating is the term for this.

Customs associated with Halloween

Halloween is a worldwide holiday that is observed by many individuals. People celebrate Halloween for a variety of reasons, but one of the most common is that it is a time to dress up in costumes and have a good time. Many people think that ghosts and other supernatural entities come out to haunt the living on Halloween. For these reasons, Halloween is an exciting and enjoyable holiday for both children and adults.

Children commonly say “Trick or Treat” when knocking on a door or ringing the doorbell. The “trick” component is a ruse, implying that if the youngsters aren’t provided something tasty, they will conduct a prank. The children are subsequently given candies, raisins, or some other food treat by the homeowners.

Many homeowners adorn their homes in anticipation of the occasion, letting children know that they are welcome to ring the bell for candy. Jack-o’-lanterns, which are pumpkins with faces carved into them and candles inside, are common decorations.

When Halloween was first celebrated among the ancient Christians, Jack-o’-lanterns were supposed to ward off evil spirits. Originally, turnips were used instead of pumpkins. Black is a color that is frequently used in decorating.

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Essay on Burning Man festival

What is scary about Halloween?

Halloween is a worldwide celebration that is observed in many nations. People dress up in costumes and go door to door asking for candy. Many individuals watch horror movies and relate to spooky stories during this season.

Halloween is a pleasant and exciting time for some people. For others, though, it can be a frightening and stressful moment. Here are a few factors that can make Halloween a frightening experience for some people:

• horror movies: Many people watch horror movies during Halloween. These movies can be very scary and may give people nightmares.
• scary stories: People also like to tell scary stories during Halloween. These stories can be about ghosts, witches, and other scary creatures.
• costumes: Some people wear scary costumes during Halloween. This can be scary for young children and people who are not used to seeing people in costumes.
• decorations: Many people put up Halloween decorations, such as ghosts, witches,

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Halloween — The Origin And History Of Halloween

The Origin and History of Halloween

• Categories: Halloween Party Tradition

About this sample

Words: 1523 |

Published: May 14, 2021

Words: 1523 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

Table of contents

History of trick-or-treating, halloween parties, works cited.

• Browne, R. (2018). Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History. Pelican Publishing.
• Curran, B. (2019). A Haunted History of Halloween: Ghosts, Legends, and Unforgettable Tales. Sterling.
• Guiley, R. E. (2019). The Encyclopedia of Saints, Second Edition. Checkmark Books.
• Hutton, R. (2018). The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press.
• Nickell, J. (2013). The Mystery Chronicles: More Real-Life X-Files. University Press of Kentucky.
• Santino, J. (2019). Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life. University of Tennessee Press.
• Skal, D. J. (2015). Something in the Blood: The Untold Story of Bram Stoker , the Man Who Wrote Dracula. W. W. Norton & Company.
• Smith, T. (2017). Halloween in America: A Collector's Guide with Prices. Schiffer Publishing.
• Stern, J. (2017). American Rituals: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations. ABC-CLIO.
• Turner, R. (2019). Halloween in the Crosshairs: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Fear in a Small Town. University of Tennessee Press.

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Halloween 2024

By: History.com Editors

Updated: January 31, 2024 | Original: November 18, 2009

Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31, and Halloween 2024 will occur on Thursday, October 31. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain , when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.

When Is Halloween 2024?

Halloween is celebrated each year on October 31. Halloween 2024 will take place on Thursday, October 31.

Ancient History of Halloween

Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts , who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly 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 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.

Did you know? One quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.

By A.D. 43, the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

All Saints' Day

On May 13, A.D. 609, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.

By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older Celtic rites. In A.D. 1000, the church made November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It’s widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, church-sanctioned holiday.

All Souls’ Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils . The All Saints’ Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

Why Do Witches Ride Brooms? The History Behind the Legend

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Vampire History

Vampire legends have permeated many cultures, but is there any truth to these blood‑sucking, un‑dead creatures?

How the Early Catholic Church Christianized Halloween

After the Romans conquered ancient Celtic realms, pagan traditions were adopted into a holiday honoring Catholic saints.

How Did Halloween Start in America?

The celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies.

As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing.

Did you know? More people are buying costumes for their pets. Americans spent nearly $500 million on costumes for their pets in 2021—more than double what they spent in 2010.

Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the 19th century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants . These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing the Irish Potato Famine , helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally.

Gallery: White House Halloweens

History of Trick-or-Treating

Borrowing from European traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about 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. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes.

Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

Halloween Parties

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide Halloween parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague some celebrations in many communities during this time.

By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated.

Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats.

Thus, a new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday after Christmas .

The Great Depression Origins of Halloween Haunted Houses

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Halloween Was Once So Dangerous That Some Cities Considered Banning It

Violence and vandalism were once as traditional as candy and costumes.

6 Things You May Not Know About Pumpkins

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Halloween Movies

Speaking of commercial success, scary Halloween movies have a long history of being box office hits. Classic Halloween movies include the “Halloween” franchise, based on the 1978 original film directed by John Carpenter and starring Donald Pleasance, Nick Castle, Jamie Lee Curtis and Tony Moran. In “Halloween,” a young boy named Michael Myers murders his 17-year-old sister and is committed to jail, only to escape as a teen on Halloween night and seek out his old home, and a new target. A direct sequel to the original "Halloween" was released in 2018, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle. A sequel to that, "Halloween Kills," was released in 2021; and a sequel to that, "Halloween Ends," was released in 2022.

Considered a classic horror film down to its spooky soundtrack, "Halloween" inspired other iconic “slasher films” like “Scream,” “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Friday the 13.” More family-friendly Halloween movies include “Hocus Pocus,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Beetlejuice” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” 

All Souls Day and Soul Cakes

The American Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling,” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food and money.

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8 of Halloween’s Most Hair‑Raising Folk Legends

From witches to zombies to creepy clowns, the season's hair‑raising legends all formed from decades—to centuries—of lore.

Why Black Cats Are Associated With Halloween and Bad Luck

As early as the 13th century, the Catholic Church linked cats to Satan.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry.

On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.

On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Gallery: Halloween Costumes Through the Ages

Black Cats and Ghosts on Halloween

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.

Today’s Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats , afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages , when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into black cats.

We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians , who believed that triangles were sacred (it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe). And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

Halloween Matchmaking and Lesser-Known Rituals

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today’s trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead.

In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday—with luck, by next Halloween—be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it.

In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl’s future husband. (In some versions of this legend, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.)

Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband.

Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces.

Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry. At others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.

Of course, whether we’re asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the goodwill of the very same “spirits” whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly.

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Halloween Resources for Fun and Research

Books on the history of halloween, selection of databases for halloween research.

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• Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Online collection of dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographical sources, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, and measurement conversions covering topics from the arts to the sciences.
• Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text This link opens in a new window Film & Television Literature Index is a comprehensive index covering the entire spectrum of television and film writing and produced for a broad target audience, from film scholars to general viewers. Subject coverage includes: film & television theory, preservation & restoration, writing, production, cinematography, technical aspects, and reviews. Dates of coverage: 1914 to present.
• JSTOR This link opens in a new window JSTOR provides access to scholarly journals, primarily in the humanities and social sciences. In addition to journal articles, users can access book chapters, ebooks, and primary source documents.
• Literature Criticism Online This link opens in a new window Literature Criticism Online includes the contents of several multidisciplinary series, including Contemporary Literary Criticism and Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. The collection includes biographical essays and selected literary criticism for authors from the classical period to the present day.
• Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window Literature Resource Center offers biographical and other background information for research on literary topics, authors, and their works. Its coverage includes all genres and disciplines, all time periods, and all regions of the world. Literature Resource Center's content comes from the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Literary Criticism, and more, including full text of selected poems, plays, and short stories.
• ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window ProQuest Central is a large, multidisciplinary database with over 11,000 titles, with over 8,000 titles in full-text. It serves as the central resource for researchers at all levels in all markets. Over 160 subjects areas are covered extensively in this product including business and economics, health and medical, news and world affairs, technology, social sciences and more.
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• Victorian Popular Culture This link opens in a new window Victorian Popular Culture is an essential resource for the study of popular entertainment in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The resource is divided into four self-contained sections: Moving Pictures, Optical Entertainments and the Advent of Cinema; Music Hall, Theatre and Popular Entertainment; Circuses, Sideshows and Freaks; Spiritualism, Sensation and Magic.
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Halloween, Its History and Celebration

There are quite a number of holidays in the world, each having different reasons for being observed, different degrees of significance, and different levels of popularity, depending on where one is located.

Among the holidays, I am most fascinated with that which features a pumpkin lantern, scary costumes and decorations, and kids shouting “trick or treat” to their neighbors at dusk. I am talking about Halloween.

I find Halloween the most interesting among all the world holidays, mainly because it is foreign to me. I want to find out its history: how it came to be, where it originated, and how it became such a popular tradition practiced in many parts of the world. I also want to know the basic tenets surrounding its popularity and practice.

Commonly observed on the eve of October 31, Halloween is a holiday for remembering and honoring the dead. It is closely linked to All Souls’ Day (also called Hallowmas or All Hallows Days) and All Saint’ Day, which are both considered holy days in the Roman Catholic Church.

All Saints’ Day was established in the 9 th Century to honor the saints of the Christian church, whereas All Souls’ Day was established a century later to help purify the spirits of the dead. Both celebrations are said to have pagan origins (Santino, 1994a; Santino, 1994b; Lanford, n.d.).

Halloween is a very old tradition. Its origins date back from many thousand years ago. And how it is currently being celebrated is very far removed from how it used to be practiced, mainly because many cultures have added ‘flavor’ to it through the centuries. Halloween originated from the Celts.

The Celts, like many other pagans, worshipped nature. They had many gods, their favorite being the sun. They believed that the sun was the one responsible for the beautiful earth and everything that grew on it. (Landford, n.d.; Santino, 1994b).

According to Lanford, the Celts “marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter by celebrating a holiday in late autumn” (Lanford, n.d.). Among the holidays celebrated by the Celts is the Samhain, which heavily influenced later Halloween celebrations.

Samhain was celebrated on the eve of October 31 until the following day, November 1. The Celts believed that on the eve of Samhain, the spirits of the departed roamed the earth. As such, they offered food and drink to ward the spirits off. They also performed rituals at sacred hilltops, where they offered human and animal sacrifices.

However, when the Celtic lands were conquered by the Roman Empire by the end of the first century A.D., the Romans adopted some of the traditions of the Celts, thus creating a mixture of Celtic and Catholic religious observances.

In Britain, which used to be a part of Celtic lands, the Romans had incorporated some Samhain customs into their own pagan harvest festival, which honors Pomona, goddess of fruit trees, to make it easier for the Romans to conquer the Celts (Landford, n.d.) completely.

In areas that were not completely conquered by the Romans, like Ireland and Scotland, however, pure Celtic influences stayed on much longer. In these areas, the Samhain custom was abandoned only during the earlier part of the Middle Ages, when the locals converted to Christianity.

One of the strategies employed by the Roman Catholic Church to win over the loyalty of the converts was incorporating some customs of the conquered lands into its religious traditions. One example of this is Halloween.

In 835 AD, Pope Gregory IV replaced Samhain with All Saints’ Day. All Souls’ Day, closer in spirit to Samhain and modern Halloween, was first instituted at a French monastery in 998 and quickly spread throughout Europe.

Folk observances linked to these Christian holidays, including Halloween, thus preserved many of the ancient Celtic customs associated with Samhain (Santino, 1994a; Santino 1994b; Lanford, n.d.).

There are traditions observed during Halloweens that are believed to have no basis in Christianity. This is mainly because some of these traditions are influences of other religions and beliefs, specifically those of the Celtic tribes.

One example of this is the jack-o’-lantern, which originated from Scotland during the Medieval period. But instead of the carved up pumpkin which are used in present-day Halloween celebrations, the earlier jack-o’-lanterns were turnips.

Present Halloween festivities feature folk beliefs that have to do with death and the supernatural. Decorations during the holiday include imagery on death, like cobwebs, human skeletons, and skulls, and costumes based on supernatural beliefs, stories, and traditions, like those Dracula, White Lady, witches, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, and so on.

Even natural objects that are believed to bring bad omen, like spiders, black cats, and bats, are also featured during Halloween celebrations as either decorations or costumes. But the most celebrated of all the Halloween decorations is the jack-o’-lantern.

The jack-o’-lantern is a pumpkin that was hollowed-out and then carved to resemble a monstrous face. Inside it is a candle or a bulb, illuminating it. The jack-o’-lantern is based on British tales, which say that the soul of a dead person named Jack O’Lantern was barred from both heaven and hell and was thus condemned to roam the earth aimlessly with his lantern.

As previously mentioned, the traditional jack-o-lantern used to be carved from turnip, potato, or beet. But the turnips were not readily available in America, so the pumpkin was used as a replacement. Placed on windows, the lanterns represent the souls of the departed loved ones and served as a protection against bad spirits (Landford, n.d.; Barth, 1972)

An interesting feature of Halloween celebrations is trick or treat where children dressed as a witch, a vampire, a ghost, or any other supernatural character go from house to house to solicit candies or treats from the house owners in their neighborhood.

The children greet every house owner with the cry, “Trick or Treat.” The greeting suggests that the house owner should present them with a treat. Otherwise, some form of a prank will be committed against them.

Although ‘Trick or Treat’ still widely practiced in many Christian nations, its practice has declined to begin in the 1970s. This may be largely due to studies suggesting the negative effect of junks, like candies, on children’s health.

Moreover, many parents are now concerned about their children still going around their neighborhood after dark. What many parents do now is to accompany their children in their Trick or Treat, or have their children accompanied by a responsible adult.

Another feature of Halloween celebration is a custom party, either for kids or for adults, or both. Traditional costumes as well as costumes inspired by pop cultures, such as movie characters, and even politicians are used.

For such parties, adults often use costumes with “satirical or humorous overtones” (Lanford, n.d.; Barth, 1972). In most costume parties, best in costume contests are usually held, where the hosts or chosen judges choose among the guests the one who is wearing the best costume.

At present, Halloween is already a popular holiday, especially in Christian nations, although there was some resistance from some Christian sects, like the English Puritans who rejected the celebration of Halloween on the basis that it is a Catholic and pagan tradition. The Puritans are members of a strict Protestant sect (Lanford, n.d.; Santino, 1994b).

Despite the resistance from the Puritans, however, Halloween spread in many Christian countries in the world. Its spread was primarily ensured by the spread of Catholicism. In the United States, British colonists transplanted the observance of Halloween in Virginia and Maryland. Moreover, in the mid 19 th Century, Irish who came into the United States as immigrants likewise helped popularize Halloween throughout the United States (Lanford, n.d.).

According to Lanford, young people in the 19th and early 20th centuries tended to observe Halloween by “perpetrating minor acts of vandalism, such as overturning sheds or breaking windows” (Lanford, n.d).

The ritual of trick or tricking started sometime in the beginning of the 1930s when Halloween mischief was slowly transformed from merely perpetuating vandalistic acts, to trick or tricking in the neighborhood.

As time passed by, Halloween treats became more plentiful as the number of tricks decreased. It is believed that the trick or treat was introduced to lessen the pranks and destruction that typically accompanied the Halloween celebrations (Santino, 1994a; Santino 1994b).

In some areas, however, pranks still survived. A day before Halloween, there is such an event called Mischief Night in some areas of the United States, where vandalism sometimes got out of hand. Landford (n.d.) shares: “in Detroit, Michigan, Mischief Night — known there as Devil’s Night —provided the occasion for waves of arson that sometimes destroyed whole city blocks during the 1970s and 1980s.”

Beginning in the 1970s, Halloween has become increasingly popular. Adult celebrations of this occasion feature elaborate satirical costumes, boisterous festivities, and drunken revelry while the costume-donning kids go house to house, treat-or-tricking their neighbors, happy with the candies that they get.

At present, Halloween is one of the most celebrated Holidays in the world, with both the young ones and the adults taking part in the festivities. It is also among the most commercialized. During Halloween, costumes, masks, and decors dominate the malls and commercial centers. Restaurants and event venues also have a heyday during the celebrations. Indeed, Halloween is such a fascinating holiday.

Bibliography

Barth, Edna. (1972). Witches, Pumpkins, and Grinning Ghosts. New York: Seaburry Press.

Landford, Brent. (n.d.) “Halloween.” MSN Encarta.

Santino, Jack. (1994a). All Around the Year: Holidays and Celebrations in American Life. University of Illiois Press.

Santino, Jack. (1994b). Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life. Knoxville. University of Tennessee Press.

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10 Paragraphs: Halloween

Halloween, a holiday filled with spookiness and excitement, offers a perfect opportunity to unleash our creativity and dive into the mystical realm of all things eerie. Writing a paragraph about Halloween allows us to explore the macabre traditions, fantastical creatures, and the bewitching atmosphere that define this beloved celebration. It is a chance to delve into the origins of Halloween, from ancient Celtic rituals to modern-day customs, and to capture the essence of this enchanting holiday. 

Table of Contents

Tips On Writing A Paragraph On Halloween

Explore iconic symbols: Halloween is rich with iconic symbols that instantly evoke the spirit of the holiday. Include elements such as jack-o’-lanterns, witches, ghosts, bats, and black cats. Describe their significance and the role they play in Halloween folklore and traditions.

Convey the spirit of celebration: Halloween is a time for celebration and revelry. Discuss the joy and excitement that permeate the air during Halloween parties and gatherings. Describe the laughter, music, and dancing, as well as the anticipation of trick-or-treating and the delight of indulging in treats and sweets.

Paragraph 1

Halloween, the bewitching night when the veil between the living and the dead grows thin, casts a spell of enchantment upon all who embrace its eerie charms. As the moon hangs low in the ink-black sky, streets come alive with flickering jack-o’-lanterns, their grinning faces casting dancing shadows. Children adorned in elaborate costumes roam from door to door, their laughter echoing through the night as they collect sweet treasures. Halloween is a celebration of the supernatural, a time when we embrace the dark and mysterious, and revel in the thrill of the unknown.

Paragraph 2

Paragraph 3.

As Halloween approaches, a sense of anticipation fills the air, mingling with the scent of crisp autumn leaves. It is a time when haunted tales are whispered, and legends of restless spirits come alive. Ghostly apparitions are said to wander through ancient graveyards, their mournful cries carried on the wind. Legends of witches and their bubbling cauldrons, casting spells and brewing potions, heighten the sense of mystery. Halloween is a night where the supernatural becomes tangible, and the boundaries between the living and the dead blur into an ethereal dance.

Paragraph 4

Halloween is a celebration that transcends age and unites communities. Neighborhoods are transformed into ghoulish wonderlands, with houses adorned in cobwebs, skeletons, and flickering candles. The sound of cackling witches and eerie music floats through the night, drawing families and friends together. Trick-or-treating becomes a joyous adventure as children, wide-eyed with excitement, venture from door to door, greeted by smiling faces and bowls filled with sugary delights. It is a night of laughter, camaraderie, and a shared sense of wonder as the community comes alive in the spirit of Halloween.

Paragraph 5

Paragraph 6.

Halloween, a night cloaked in mystery and enchantment, stirs the imagination and beckons us into a world of magic and wonder. It is a time when the ordinary is transformed into the extraordinary, as neighborhoods are adorned with flickering orange lights and eerie decorations. The air is tinged with excitement and anticipation, as children and adults alike prepare for a night of trick-or-treating and revelry. Halloween is a celebration of the fantastical, a moment to embrace the supernatural and indulge in the thrill of the unknown.

Paragraph 7

The spirit of Halloween is alive in the flickering flames of bonfires and the crackling of dried leaves underfoot. It is a night when the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, and mythical creatures come to life. From werewolves howling at the moon to vampires lurking in shadowy corners, Halloween is a time when legends and folklore step out of the pages of books and dance in the moonlight. It is a night when the imagination takes flight, and we embrace the magic that resides within us all.

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Paragraph 9.

As the sun sets on Halloween night, a sense of anticipation fills the air. Shadows lengthen, and the world takes on an otherworldly glow. It is a time when the barrier between the living and the dead grows thin, and spirits are said to walk among us. Ghostly tales are whispered around bonfires, and the flickering candlelight casts dancing shadows upon the walls. Halloween is a night when we confront our deepest fears and embrace the unknown, for it is in the darkness that we find our strength.

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About mr. greg.

Mr. Greg is an English teacher from Edinburgh, Scotland, currently based in Hong Kong. He has over 5 years teaching experience and recently completed his PGCE at the University of Essex Online. In 2013, he graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a BEng(Hons) in Computing, with a focus on social media.

• HISTORY & CULTURE

The history of trick-or-treating, and how it became a Halloween tradition

Children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door for treats is a relatively modern tradition—but its origins can be traced to the Celts and even a long-lost Christmas tradition.

Every year on October 31, adults listen for the sound of a knock on their door from costumed children, arms outstretched with a bag open for candy. In modern times, trick-or-treating has become a nearly sacred Halloween tradition in the United States.

Yet historians say the origins of kids begging their neighbors for food may date back to ancient Celtic celebrations or even a long-lost Christmas custom. And the phrase itself dates back to the 1920s, when Halloween pranks once set entire cities on edge. Here’s how trick-or-treating evolved.

The origin of Halloween

Halloween is thought to date back more than 2,000 years to Samhain, a Celtic New Year’s Day that fell on November 1. Demons, fairies, and spirits of the dead were thought to walk the Earth the night before when the separation was thin between the worlds of the living and the dead.  

The Celts lit bonfires and set out gifts of food, hoping to win the favor of the spirits of those who had died in the past year. They also disguised themselves so the spirits of the dead wouldn’t recognize them.

Samhain later transformed in the seventh century into All Saints’ Day or All Hallows’ Day as Christian leaders co-opted pagan holidays. But the night before continued to be observed with bonfires, costumes, and parades under the new name All Hallows' Eve—later "Halloween."

European immigrants then brought Halloween to the United States, and the celebration became popular in the 1800s, when Irish American immigration exploded. Their folk customs and beliefs merged with existing agricultural traditions, meaning Halloween dabbled in the occult, but stayed grounded in the fall harvest. Over the years, the holiday became a time for children to dress up as the ghosts their ancestors once feared.

( Read more about the holiday’s history and myths .)

How trick-or-treating became a tradition

But how did those Celtic traditions evolve into one of children trick-or-treating in costumes for fun and candy—not for safety from spirits?  

According to the fifth edition of Holiday Symbols and Customs, in as early as the 16th century, it was customary in England for those who were poor to go begging on All Souls’ Day , and children eventually took over the custom. At the time, it was popular to give children cakes with crosses on top called “soul cakes” in exchange for prayers on your behalf.

Lisa Morton, author of Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween, traced one of the earliest mentions of typical Halloween celebrations to a letter from Queen Victoria about spending Halloween around a bonfire in Scotland in 1869.  

“Having made the circuit of the Castle,” the letter said , “the remainder of the torches were thrown in a pile at the south-west corner, thus forming a large bonfire, which was speedily augmented with other combustibles until it formed a burning mass of huge proportions, round which dancing was spiritedly carried on.”

Morton writes that people in the American middle class often were anxious to imitate their British cousins, which would explain a short story printed in 1870 that painted Halloween as an English holiday celebrated by children with fortune-telling and games to win treats.  

However, Morton writes that it’s possible that trick-or-treating may be a more recent tradition that, surprisingly, may have been inspired by Christmas.  

A popular 18th- and 19th-century Christmas custom called belsnickling in the eastern areas of the U.S. and Canada was similar to trick-or-treating: Groups of costumed participants would go from house to house to perform small tricks in exchange for food and drink. Some belsnicklers even deliberately frightened young children at houses before asking if they had been good enough to earn a treat. And other early descriptions say that those handing out treats had to guess the identities of the disguised revelers, giving food to anyone they couldn’t identify.

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In the 19th century, “tricks”—such as   rattling windows and tying doors shut —were often made to look as though supernatural forces had conjured them. Some people offered candy as a way to protect their homes from pranksters, who might wreak havoc by disassembling farm equipment and reassembling it on a rooftop. By the early 20th century, some property owners had even begun to fight back and lawmakers encouraged communities   to keep children in check with wholesome fun.

These pranks likely gave rise to the use of the phrase “trick-or-treat.” Barry Popik, an etymologist, traced the earliest usage of the phrase in connection with Halloween to a 1927 Alberta newspaper article reporting on pranksters demanding “trick or treat” at houses.

How trick-or-treating grew popular

Trick-or-treating became widespread in the U.S. after the Second World War, when rationing ended and candy was once again readily available. The rapid development of suburban neighborhoods where it was easier than ever for kids to travel from house to house also fueled the rise of the tradition.  

In the 1950s, Halloween imagery and merchandising started to reflect that popularity, and the holiday became more consumerist. Costumes went from simple, homemade attire mimicking ghosts and pirates to mass-produced costumes of beloved TV and movie characters.

As trick-or-treating’s popularity rose, adults found it far easier to hand out individually wrapped candies than apples, nuts, and homemade goodies. Candy had first made its appearance in the 1800s at American Halloween parties as taffy that children could pull, and candy is now solidified as the go-to “treat.”  

By the mid 20th century, Halloween tricks of old had all but disappeared. Children just wanted candy and homeowners with their house lights on gave it to them. Those that preferred to avoid candy-giving entirely kept their lights off.

But even as Halloween became a wholesome family activity, urban myths arose in the 1960s   that generated concern about whether it was really all that safe for kids to take candy from strangers. It’s difficult to trace the origins of urban myths like razor blades in apples or candy laced with drugs—although, i n 1964, a New York housewife made headlines after deeming some trick-or-treaters too old and handing them packages of dog biscuits, poisonous ant bait, and steel wool.  

That incident gave rise to educational programs telling children to throw away unwrapped treats, and a shift toward commercial wrapped candy, earning an incidental win for candy manufacturers .

Halloween’s candy boom

Since the rise of trick-or-treating after World War II, chocolate has reigned supreme as the most popular sweet to hand out. By 2009, Halloween had become the top U.S. holiday for chocolate sales, and that number keeps on growing.

The day has become the nation’s second-largest commercial holiday, and this year, Americans are expected to spend an estimated $3 billion on Halloween candy, according to the National Retail Federation . A good portion of that money is spent on Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, which national distributor Candy Store says is America’s most beloved Halloween candy.

Candy corn, first manufactured in the 1880s, also remains a classic—even though it consistently ranks as America’s least favorite Halloween treat. About 35 million pounds of the orange, yellow, and white cone-shaped candy is produced each year with the majority sold for Halloween, according to the National Confectioners Association .

Candy sales took a dip in 2020 as COVID-19 restrictions forced trick-or-treaters indoors. But now, two years later, American children have once again taken to the streets to exhort their neighbors for sweets—and maybe even play some lighthearted pranks—much like the Celts and the belsnicklers that came before them.

Related Topics

Why Swedish children celebrate Easter by dressing up as witches

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Ozempic and Mounjaro may also lower your risk of obesity-linked cancer

Why Passover is one of Judaism’s most important holidays

This ancient festival is a celebration of springtime—and a brand new year

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78 Halloween Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best halloween topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 simple & easy halloween essay titles, 🥇 good research topics about halloween, ❓ halloween research questions.

• “Halloween” (1978): A Film Analysis Since the plot of the movies of the killer genre revolves around the murderer, it is only fair that the way his presence and actions are depicted is what makes the story horrifying.
• The Global Festival of Halloween or Hallow Eve The festival’s roots came from the traditions of religious attention to the edge between the world of the living and the dead.
• Halloween: Ancient Religious Roots and Traditions Preview: After conducting in-depth research, in the next few minutes, I will inform you about the history of Halloween, how the modern trick-or-treat tradition came to be, and the practice of wearing costumes.
• Halloween Celebration in the United States During the event, I learnt a number of factors that were very practical in increasing the level of pleasure and joy that one can derive from the festival.
• Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos Celebrations Halloween was celebrated by the Celtic inhabitants to mark the beginning of the New Year celebrations. The Druids were the priests, and the educated class of the Celtic group.
• Why Halloween Celebration Is Bad It signifies the time when the wall between the world of the dead or supernatural and the living was broken down.
• Comparing and Contrasting: Halloween to Day of the Dead
• Americans Should Abolish Halloween as a Traditional Holiday
• Comparison Between Halloween and Easter
• Is Your Kid’s Halloween Costume Safe?
• Role of Religion in Contributing to the Development of Halloween
• Why Catholics Should Not Celebrate Halloween
• Celebrating Halloween and Being an Exemplary Believer as a Paradox
• Comparing and Contrasting Between Prom Night and Halloween Night
• Discrimination Issues Appearing During Halloween
• Halloween History and Traditions: Old and New
• Racist and Culturally Oppressive Customs During Halloween in the United States
• The Reasons Why Halloween Is the Best Celebration of the Year
• The History and Origins of Halloween
• Halloween: The Gate Between the Living and the Spirit World Opens
• Role of the Conquest of the Roman Empire on the Celtic Territory
• The History and the Negative Effects of Halloween
• The Origin and Development of the Halloween Tradition
• The Past and Present of Halloween
• The Symbolism and Traditions in Halloween
• Why Keeping Halloween Traditions Is Important
• The Issue of Gender Roles During Halloween
• Finding the Definition of Halloween in Different Works of Literature
• Halloween and Day of the Dead: The Unique Difference
• The Dark History Behind Halloween
• The Role of the Media in Popularizing Halloween
• The Difference Between Samhain and Halloween
• The Effect of Media on the Popularization of Halloween
• How Has the Halloween Celebration Evolved?
• The Myths Behind the Origins of Halloween
• The Development of the Halloween Festival From the 8th Century
• The Evolution of Halloween Into a Day of Activities
• Traditional Festive Gatherings That Define Halloween
• How People in the UK and France Celebrated Halloween in the 18th Century
• Connection Between the Worlds of the Living and the Dead and Halloween
• The Role of Celtic Priests in Furthering the Halloween Festival
• The Customs of Different European Ethnic Groups Concerning Halloween
• The Impact of Coronavirus on Halloween Celebrations in the United States
• The Typical Annual Autumn Festivities Related to Halloween
• The Role of Immigration in Furthering Halloween
• Overview of the “Trick-Or-Treat” Tradition of Halloween
• What Are the Changing Halloween Costume Trends?
• Should Americans Abolish Halloween as a Traditional Holiday?
• What Are the Most Popular Halloween Movies?
• What Is the History of Halloween?
• Do Stores Have Sales Before Halloween?
• What Is the Scariest Outdoor Decoration for Halloween?
• What Are the Most Popular Halloween Sweets?
• How Is Halloween Traditionally Celebrated?
• What Are the Similarities and Differences Between Halloween and the Day of the Dead?
• Is Dracula a Popular Halloween Icon?
• What Is the Most Popular Halloween Symbol?
• What Is Better to Use on Halloween, a Mask or Makeup?
• Do You Celebrate Halloween With the Whole Family?
• Why Is Halloween Celebrated in October?
• Should Catholics Participate in Halloween?
• Are Gothic Buildings Associated With Halloween?
• Why Do Children Love Halloween?
• What Are the Myths and Legends About Halloween?
• How to Create a Budget Costume for Halloween?
• What Are the Most Questionable Celebrity Halloween Costumes of All Time?
• Why Are Pumpkins Popular on Halloween?
• Are There Racist and Culturally Repressive Halloween Customs in the United States?
• Are Sexy Halloween Costumes Appropriate?
• What Are the Best Pet Costumes for Halloween?
• The Halloween Effect and Japanese Stock Prices: Myth or Anomaly?
• What Are the Negative Effects of Halloween?
• What Do Halloween Colors Symbolize?
• What Skills Are Used When Carving Halloween Pumpkins?
• What Are Some Halloween Games for Kids?
• What Does Halloween Teach Children?
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Essays on Halloween

Spooky season is the best season, and you can use your Halloween essay as an opportunity to delve deeper into the origins and traditions of this boo-tiful holiday. Halloween also referred to as All Hallows' Eve, is a holiday that originated in Ireland, where it was called Samhain. Some Halloween essays concentrate primarily on the Celtic origins of this holiday, while other essays on Halloween explore modern-day practices and traditions. Halloween is celebrated annually on October 31. It was believed that on this day evil spirits roamed free, so people were putting on costumes to trick the spirits into leaving people alone. Nowadays Halloween is celebrated by dressing up in costumes, trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, and eating candy. Use Halloween essay samples below to gather more information about Halloween for your essays. We compiled only the best essay samples for you to check out!

Harry Potter: A Story of Marginalization and Hope Because of their universality and magic, the Harry Potter series and stories are exceptional. It revolves around an outcast young boy. Harry Potter is a young kid. Outcasts have been viewed as a relegated and undesirably typecast community throughout history. The story depicts...

Cosplay is seen differently by many people; for others, it is a way of life, and for others, it is a sport. If you have engaged in cosplay or not, it has become common in today's culture. Labor and a significant amount of time are expended in creating these costumes...

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In a small remote town in Chicago Illinois There is an old legend that has been passed from one technology to another. The story is narrated to kids by their parents at night time to scare them during Halloween so that they do not wander far away from their homes. The Actual...

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Halloween Essay: How to Write, Topics and Essay Ideas

So, there are a few days left before Halloween, one of the favorite American holidays both for kids and adults. Most probably, your teacher will ask to prepare a Halloween essay. And most probably, it is not the first Halloween essay that you need to prepare.

We are sure that right now your head is busy with ideas for a Halloween party, your costume, some tricks, and so on. You absolutely do not feel like writing your Halloween essay, although the topic is fascinating.

Yet, even really amazing topics should be properly covered. Let Custom-writing.org offer you several ways of completing your Halloween essay, which will not take too much time and efforts.

🔝 Top 10 Halloween Essay Ideas

• Your favorite Halloween specials 
• What traditions define Halloween? 
• What makes trick-or-treating dangerous? 
• Why are apples associated with Halloween? 
• How does Halloween impact the economy? 
• Different Halloween customs around the world 
• The difference between Samhain and Halloween 
• The effect of media in the popularization of Halloween 
• How has the Halloween celebration evolved over time? 
• How has religion contributed to Halloween’s development? 

Writing Halloween Essays: Way #1

Imagine that you have a friend who lives in a country where Halloween is not popular, and you have to tell him/her about the holiday. You can use general facts, your knowledge, and experience to complete the Halloween essay in this way.

Here are some points to include into your Halloween essay for a foreign friend:

• Say a few words about the origins of Halloween;
• Talk about the tradition of carving pumpkins. Add a couple of pictures.
• Tell how people celebrate Halloween . Give details on how people decorate their houses and yards, how they choose costumes, how kids do trick-or-treating, how Halloween parties are organized.

Writing Halloween Essays: Way #2

Another easy and exciting way to prepare a Halloween essay is to make up a scary story. Think about a good idea for your story involving ghosts, witches, dead men. Mind that descriptions, vivid details will make your Halloween essay more impressive.

Your Halloween essay can also be based on your personal experience (sure, you can make up some details). It can be something like “Last Halloween, I and two other guys decided to visit that old, abandoned house that was believed to be haunted. As it turned out, ghosts were there!”

Our tips for writing remembered event essays and a narration essay might be useful.

Learn more on this topic:

• Coral Reef Essay: Descriptive Writing How-to Guide
• Best Descriptive Essays That Win Top Marks
• Harriet Tubman Essay: How to Write, Prompts and Ideas
• Americanism Essay Writing: How-to Guide, Tips, Topics
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i really needed this and i have a presentation in a few days and i really needed a speech for my project thanks!!

Everybody loves HALLOWEEN and your article is really good one 😀

Thank you very much for stopping by! We hope to see you again on our blog. Feel free to browse other posts and categories. Have a nice week!

Thanks so much for interesting ideas for my Halloween essay. Though it is too early to write about Halloween, but this is my favorite holiday, and I can’t but dedicate my paper to it! Good luck!

When I was given to write an essay about my favorite holiday, I chose Halloween. In your article on writing Halloween essays, I found lots of fascinating ideas for my paper. Thanks for them very much!

How to Write a Spooky Essay on Halloween: Tips, Topics, and Examples

In contemporary society, individuals continue to appreciate traditional festive events, with Halloween being a prime example. Common elements found in every Halloween celebration encompass:

• Donning Halloween costumes.
• Carving pumpkins.
• Sharing spooky stories.
• Exploring haunted houses.
• Participating in trick-or-treating, and more.

Regardless of the academic task at hand, such as a science fair project or a presentation, the ultimate goal is often to achieve the highest grade. If you find yourself tasked with composing a Halloween essay, our coursework help service offers compelling ideas to ensure your essay stands out.

What Is a Halloween Essay

A Halloween essay is a written composition that explores and discusses various aspects related to Halloween, the popular festive celebration observed on October 31st. In such an essay, writers may delve into the history and origins of Halloween, cultural and societal traditions associated with the holiday, personal experiences and memories, or even explore the significance of Halloween in literature, film, or art.

The essay about Halloween may encompass a range of themes, from the spooky and supernatural elements often associated with Halloween to the more lighthearted aspects such as costumes, decorations, and traditional activities like trick-or-treating. Ultimately, a Halloween essay provides an opportunity for writers to express their thoughts, reflections, and insights related to this widely celebrated and unique holiday.

Halloween Essay Step-By-Step Writing Tips

Does the mere thought of tackling your homework send shivers down your spine? Certainly, similar to any academic task, crafting an essay on Halloween demands a sense of responsibility. Adhere to the key points outlined in our checklist, an integral component of our custom dissertation writing service .

Explore Halloween Essay Ideas for Your Topics

The versatility of Halloween essays allows for creativity in choosing topics. Crafting a compelling narrative that keeps readers engaged is key to success. Striking a balance between eerie elements and informative content is crucial. Consider sharing the history of trick-or-treat bags, recounting a mystical and spine-chilling personal experience, or even writing a book review on Halloween literature.

Conduct Thorough Research

To impress your audience with intriguing ideas and captivating details, delve into background information. Utilize old books or online resources, ensuring the credibility of your sources. Watching spooky movies or immersing yourself in Halloween stories can further enrich your essay with authentic and compelling content.

Adhere to a Structured Approach

While the theme is Halloween, maintaining a structured academic format is essential. Even in the realm of a Halloween essay, academic rules of how to write coursework still make a difference. Follow the conventions of scholarly writing, including a well-crafted thesis statement, an engaging introduction, a detailed body, and a conclusive conclusion. The thesis statement should succinctly encapsulate the main idea of your Halloween essay, setting the tone for the subsequent paragraphs.

Halloween Essay Example

Here is a nice sample of the Halloween essay for you.

Does the deadline for your Halloween essay creep from around the corner?

Fear no more with our fantastic essay writers! Night or day, they are always ready to write an assignment!

Halloween Essay Types

If you're aiming for top grades and the approval of your teachers, adhere to their specifications for the Halloween essay. Typically, they outline the desired type of work, which may fall into the following categories:

Narrative Halloween Essay

Crafting a narrative Halloween essay involves recounting a series of events, whether real or imaginary. For instance, share the details of your most recent Halloween as an illustration. Alternatively, let your imagination run wild and pen a story about an encounter with a haunted house.

Descriptive Halloween Essay

True to its name, a descriptive Halloween essay provides a detailed portrayal of the chosen topic. Narrate a story aligned with the theme of your Halloween costume, or delve into the intricacies of the jack-o-lantern you intricately carved during a festive gathering.

Informative Halloween Essay

If your goal is to impart knowledge, consider composing an informative essay. This Halloween paper can encompass details about the holiday's history or traditions. Explore topics such as the origins of spooky costumes, the significance of lighting bonfires, or the cultural variations in celebrations among different European ethnic groups.

Halloween Writing Prompt Ideas

Looking for inspirational Halloween essay ideas? Look no further! We present a compilation of compelling Halloween essay topics, and undoubtedly, at least one of these essay examples is sure to resonate with you.

Spooky Topics for a Short Essay About Halloween

People are drawn to narratives that evoke spine-chilling sensations, making a scary Halloween essay particularly appealing to readers. While an essay on "why Halloween is the best holiday" is fitting, there are numerous other ideas to explore:

• The ghostly origins of Halloween: Unraveling the historical roots of Halloween's spookiness.
• Exploring the mysteries within the infamous haunted house on Elm Street.
• What makes midnight on Halloween so bewitching?
• The legend of the headless horseman.
• The dark side of trick-or-treating: Examining the potential dark undertones of the seemingly innocent tradition of trick-or-treating.
• Have you heard the chilling tales of costumes carrying mysterious curses?
• Tracing the eerie history behind the tradition of carving jack-o'-lanterns.
• Spirits among us: Ghost stories of Halloween.
• Discovering the mysteries within the deserted grounds of Halloween carnivals left in abandonment.
• The enigmatic black cat: superstitions and folklore.

Best 5 Paragraph Essay About Halloween Ideas

Typically, a standard essay comprises approximately five sections. This structure enables the writer to convey their message concisely. Hence, select Halloween writing topics that can be effectively explored within a few paragraphs.

• How have Halloween traditions evolved over time?
• What makes haunted houses a compelling journey into fear?
• How have Halloween costumes transitioned from tradition to trend?
• What ghostly legends define the essence of Halloween?
• Is trick-or-treating a sweet tradition or a dark deception?
• How has the tradition of carving jack-o'-lanterns evolved through history?
• How does Halloween manifest in literature and film as a spooky spectacle?
• What psychological aspects drive fear during Halloween?
• How does Halloween celebrate cultural variations around the world?
• How has Halloween been shaped by popular culture?

Awesome Topics for an Essay About the Halloween Festival

If you have a penchant for various celebrations, you might consider crafting an essay about them. Explore a variety of Halloween essay options:

• The history and origins of the Halloween festival.
• Haunted attractions: A thrill or a frightening experience?
• Costumes through time: Evolution of Halloween dressing.
• Trick-or-treating: Innocent tradition or modern concern?
• Carving tradition: The cultural significance of Jack-o'-Lanterns.
• Halloween in popular culture: Depictions in movies and literature.
• Cultural diversity in Halloween celebrations around the world.
• Halloween and superstitions: Folklore and beliefs.
• DIY Halloween decor: Crafting spooky ambiance at home.
• Halloween and commercialization: Is the spirit lost in consumerism?

Creepy Ideas for Essay on Halloween Parties

• Can you unravel the mystique of Halloween parties?
• Eerie elegance – transforming spaces into hauntingly beautiful venues.
• How can you explore spooky and tasty Halloween party recipes?
• Whispering walls: How does ghostly décor send shivers down your spine?
• Setting the right tone with a spine-chilling playlist.
• Costume chronicles: The psychology behind creepy costumes.
• Haunted games and activities: How to ensure goosebumps and laughter coexist.
• Witch's brew and potions – crafting sinister cocktails for all to sip.
• Ghostly guests – The art of inviting spirits to your Halloween bash?
• The witching hour: The secrets to hosting a truly unforgettable midnight soirée.

Scary Halloween History Essay Ideas

Do you need to set a deadline for composing your essay on the history of Halloween? Undoubtedly, understanding the origins of beloved holidays is crucial for expanding your worldview and knowledge. If you're contemplating what to include in your paper, here are some suggestions for your history of Halloween essay:

• The Witch Trials: How did the fear of witches shape Halloween's dark history?
• Origins of Trick-or-Treating: Can you trace the spooky roots of this beloved tradition?
• Eerie tales and legends that contribute to Halloween's mystique.
• How did disguising oneself become an integral part of Halloween?
• Ancient rituals laid the foundation for modern Halloween.
• What's the history behind carving frightening faces on pumpkins?
• How did Halloween become intertwined with the supernatural?
• What led to the Christian influence on this pagan festival?
• Documented accounts of paranormal activity on Halloween.
• Commercialization of Fear: How did the Halloween industry turn fright into a lucrative business?

Top Essay Topics on Trick-or-Treating and Other Halloween Traditions

If you have an affinity for Halloween traditions, exploring an essay on this subject could be captivating. Choose from the Halloween paper ideas we provide below:

• How has this Halloween tradition transformed over time?
• What role do community interactions play in the trick-or-treating experience?
• How do different cultures incorporate trick-or-treating into their Halloween festivities?
• DIY Halloween Treats: What are some creative and spooky homemade treats for trick-or-treaters?
• How do costumes contribute to the overall trick-or-treating experience?
• Alternative Halloween Celebrations – Non-traditional ways to celebrate Halloween without trick-or-treating.
• Trick-or-Treating Etiquette: Do's and don'ts for both givers and receivers during Halloween.
• How can communities ensure a safe environment for trick-or-treaters?
• Historical Roots of Halloween: How did trick-or-treating become intertwined with this ancient celebration?
• Exploring the irresistible charm of Halloween traditions.

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Spooking Up

In conclusion, the possibilities for a Halloween essay are limitless. Embracing all the suggestions can turn the writing process into a surprisingly enjoyable endeavor. Consider the subjects you wish to explore, choose the most captivating topic, and embark on creating an exemplary assignment!

Daniel Parker

is a seasoned educational writer focusing on scholarship guidance, research papers, and various forms of academic essays including reflective and narrative essays. His expertise also extends to detailed case studies. A scholar with a background in English Literature and Education, Daniel’s work on EssayPro blog aims to support students in achieving academic excellence and securing scholarships. His hobbies include reading classic literature and participating in academic forums.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

Paragraph on Halloween

Students are often asked to write a paragraph on Halloween in their schools. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 200-word, and 250-word paragraphs on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

Paragraph on Halloween in 100 Words

Halloween is a fun holiday that kids and adults celebrate on October 31st every year. People dress up in different costumes, like superheroes, witches, or even animals. They visit houses in their neighborhood asking for candies by saying “trick or treat”. Many houses are decorated with pumpkins, fake spiders, and spooky things. Some people make a Jack-o-lantern, which is a carved pumpkin with a candle inside. Halloween is all about sharing scary stories, watching spooky movies, and having a good time with friends and family. Even though it may seem scary, it is a day full of fun and treats.

Paragraph on Halloween in 200 Words

Halloween is a fun and exciting holiday that comes every year on October 31st. Kids and adults alike enjoy this day by dressing up in different costumes, pretending to be their favorite characters from books, movies, or their imagination. It’s a special time when your neighborhood might be filled with ghosts, witches, superheroes, and princesses walking around. At night, children go from door to door, saying “trick or treat” to their neighbors who give them candies and other sweet treats. Houses are decorated with pumpkins, spiders, bats, and sometimes even fake graves to create a spooky atmosphere. People carve scary or funny faces into pumpkins, making them into ‘jack-o’-lanterns’ and put them on their porches. Halloween is also a time for telling scary stories and watching creepy movies. Even though it might seem a little scary, it is all in good fun. So, Halloween is a holiday full of costumes, candy, decorations, and excitement. It’s a day when you can be anything you want and have lots of fun with your friends and family.

Paragraph on Halloween in 250 Words

Halloween, celebrated on October 31st each year, is a fun and exciting holiday filled with costumes, candy, and spooky stories. It originated from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain, where people lit bonfires and wore costumes to scare away ghosts. Over time, Halloween evolved into a community-centered, child-friendly celebration. Kids enjoy dressing up in different types of costumes, like witches, vampires, superheroes, and even famous characters from movies or books. They go house-to-house in their neighborhoods, saying “trick or treat,” and neighbors give them sweets, chocolates, or small toys. It’s a night when pumpkins are carved into ‘jack-o’-lanterns’ and placed outside homes to keep away spirits. Families and friends often host parties where they play games, tell scary stories, and watch horror movies. Also, many people visit haunted houses, where they walk through dark, scary setups and enjoy getting scared. Schools also celebrate Halloween by having costume contests and parties. Not only is it a fun day for kids, but adults also enjoy the holiday. They get to decorate their homes, yards, and even offices with spooky decorations. Halloween is a time for everyone to let their imaginations run wild, enjoy a good scare, and most importantly, have fun. It’s a day that brings communities together and allows everyone to enjoy a little bit of fantasy and fear combined.

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Elementary Classrooms 7 Stories Filled with Halloween Spirit

Linden Brett Wicinas

Here are some festive and spooky reading lessons perfect for October!

Trick treating, dressing up, and jack-o'-lanterns are on every student’s mind this time of year. Lean into the festivities with these spooky and fantastical texts your class is sure to love! Our digital literacy program comes with tools that will help you build reading comprehension in the classroom and reach benchmark ELA standards for all of your students.

“ Grandpa’s Magic Hat ” by Marilyn Helmer (3rd Grade)

In this short story, a young boy and his brother find an old hat in the attic. Their grandfather tells them it will bring a scarecrow to life. They are skeptical but still plan an experiment to see if the hat is magic.

This heartwarming story is sure to resonate with children whose steadfast belief in magic might be starting to waver. It is the perfect text for teachers introducing character point of view. Matt's views about magic changes over the course of the story. Ask students to identify where in the story those shifts of opinion begin to appear.

“ The Corn Maze ” by Kris Bitar (3rd Grade)

In this spooky story, a family visits a corn maze; however, the narrator’s plan to scare their younger brother backfires!

Use this scary story for kids to start a conversation about your students' relationship with fear. Using the discussion questions as a guide ask your students: “Do you think it was a good idea for the narrator to try to scare Max? Why or why not? Have you ever tried to scare someone? Would you like to scare someone? Why or why not?”

“ Trail into Darkness ” by Brad Robie (4th Grade)

This spooky short story begins with Luke and his family snowshoeing through the woods. Luke gets separated by his family and starts to panic; the woods are suddenly a much more sinister place. Eventually, he calms himself down and finds his family.

Pair “The Trail into Darkness” with Gary Soto’s “ The Chicken Who Crossed the Road ” both lessons have an emphasis on courage in times of fear. Ask students to compare the main characters’ acts of courage. Although both characters are brave, how does their bravery differ? How is it the same? If Luke from “Trail Into Darkness” met Miguel from “The Chicken that Crossed the Road” what advice might they give each other?

“ Little Red Riding Hood ” by the Brothers Grimm (5th Grade)

In this classic fairy tale, a wolf stalks Little Red Riding Hood all the way to her grandmother’s house. It is only through her grandmother’s quick thinking and the wolf’s interest in a sausage snack that saves the little girl.

In the Related Media tab of this lesson you will find an audio-visual version of the story. Show it to your class and ask students to identify which words and passages the narrator puts emphasis on. Is this story scarier when read out loud?  

“ The Talking Skull ” by Donna L. Washington (5th Grade)

In this fable from Cameroon, a man finds a talking skull and decides to take it to his village. The village people don’t believe the skull can speak and the townspeople banish the man.

The fantastical skull allowed the protagonist to see the world through a different lens. This text allows students to think about active listening using allegory. This is an excellent lesson if you’re teaching a unit of fables. You can find more fable based lessons here !

“ The Spooky Science of Fear ” by Tracy Vonder Brink (4th Grade)

In this interview, Tracy Vonder Brink and Dr. Margaret Kerr explain the effects of fear on our brains and bodies. The two discuss how fear can be a tool that can be used to protect us, but it can also stop someone from trying new things.

Pair any of the previous lessons with this short piece In order to further students' understanding of fear. Your class can go farther and watch the  video “The Brain for Kids” from our Related Media tab. The video explains how different parts of the brain work. Ask students which part of the brain is responsible for fear? What else does this part of the brain help us do?

For students who love Halloween but don’t love the fear factor, check out our Thematic Unit on Fantasy , which includes reading assignments, evidence-based writing assignments, and sprinkling of fairies.

Looking for more tips and tricks for bringing the Halloween spirit to your classroom? Come to one of our Spooky Stories Webinars !

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CommonLit’s team will reach out with more information on our school and district partnerships.

15 Haunted Halloween Writing Prompts

by Abigail Perry and Ruthanne Reid | 10 comments

BOO! Halloween is right around the corner—what better day to write some spooky stories? Sharpen your pencil and take a stab at one of these Halloween writing prompts !

Scary Stories Connect With Readers in Big Ways

You write to get a reaction out of your readers. No matter the genre, you want your reader to feel  something when they read your writing.

For horror writers, that feeling is fear. But it's also so much more.

Great horror stories take the everyday creepy and turn it into something even  more  creepy (and often become a condemnation of injustices in society). The great thing is, horror stories teach you that those creepy things can be beaten. That's what keeps bringing the readers back.

And that's why horror writers keep churning out the fear.

Maybe you love writing scary stories. Maybe you don't, but I hope you'll give it a try, just for practice (we're fans of that around here!).

Just like reading outside your genre is valuable to mastering the writing craft, so is writing a scary story .

This story doesn't have to be long, it could be a short story . Try for something you can write in one sitting, like 1,500 words.

To get you started, use one of the Halloween writing prompts suggested in this article. Then let loose, and have fun!

Creepy Story Writing Prompts

1. It's late at night, and you hear footsteps in the cellar, but you're definitely home alone…or so you thought.

2. You've put that doll in the cabinet, in the closet, in the attic, but no matter where you tuck it, it always shows back up on the sofa. On Halloween night, you find it watching you…

3. A bad-tempered businessman is driving home after a long day of work. He thinks he sees his kids trick-or-treating and stops to pick them up but those aren't costumes.

4. It's Halloween night and you and your friends think it would be fun to visit the local town's annual corn maze. But when you're inside it, someone inside the maze doesn't look like an actor in a costume. And shortly after, your friends start to disappear one by one.

5. You don't believe in the rumors that say a certain scary book is cursed—and that anyone who reads it will meet their maker by the end of the week. So naturally, you read it. And then things start going wrong…

Monster/Ghost Story Writing Prompts

6. A young woman goes to her grandmother's house for tea on Halloween night. They have a wonderful time together, sharing stories, joy, and the best times of family. The next day, the woman learns her grandmother has been dead for a week and no one could get ahold of her to tell her.

7. A little boy is lost in the woods, but at least his faithful dog is with him. As they look for the way out, the dog defends his master against terrifying monsters and animals. But the closer they get to the escaping the dark forest, the more apparent it is that they'll need to face the person, or thing, releasing these monsters in the first place.

8. A farmer who dreams of being a scientist experiments on this year's pumpkins, hoping to enlarge them. He has a lot of success, until one of his potions is tampered with, and the cute pumpkin in his patch morphs into a monster that eats anyone who stumbles over its vines.

9. Your girlfriend/boyfriend brings over your favorite treat on Halloween, but when you eat it, you transform into a giant, poisonous snake that kills anyone who touches you. What do you do next?

10. You wake up on Halloween night, look outside your window, and see your sister sleep walking away from the house. You chase after her but can't catch her until she plunges into a dark lake, where there's a mysterious song that starts to pull you deep below the surface.

Not-So-Spooky Story Writing Prompts

Not all people love scary stories. If this is you but you'd like to try to write a scary story—and have a fun time writing it—try tackling a (not-so) scary story prompt that could turn a potentially scary tale into something that is fun (even funny):

11. You hate clowns, which makes it even worse when your husband secretly decides to hire a clown for you son's birthday party—which just happens to be on Halloween.

12. Aliens have just landed on Earth and boy, did they pick a weird day to come. How do they respond to Halloween, supernatural or otherwise? Do they decide this place is just too bizarre and get the heck out, or do they stick around and join in the fun?

13. On Halloween night, lovers get to come back and spend the evening together one more time. One couple from the Roaring Twenties decides to come back from the grave to help their extreme nerd great-grandchild or the kid will never get married.

14. You decide that this year you're going to crash the ten top costume parties in town—and prank each one while you're at it.

15. A mad scientist determined to destroy the world falls hopelessly in love with a not-so-wicked witch. As hard as he tries, he can't impress her.

Write Your Spooky Stories

Writing a scary story can be a fun exercise to give your students (regardless of age, elementary students to college graduates) around this time of year. It also can stir some exciting writing ideas in  any  writer, whether or not they're part of an entire class or their personal writing group.

As mentioned above, writing scary stories can also push you to better your creative writing skills, even if it's not normally in your genre lane. Bestselling author Neil Gaiman has some great insight about  why  this is true:

Fairy tales are more than true: Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

You don't have to love horror stories to write one, but you will learn about protagonists who face trialing, often life or death, situations when writing them. Challenge students or writers to become better at their writing craft by pushing them to write a short scary story with one of the writing prompts in this article.

Sit down with your favorite candy or flavor of candy corn and get ready to write. Pluck it from the list, and let your imagination free!

What is your favorite Halloween writing prompt from this list?   Why did it stand out to you?  Let us know in the comments .

Abigail Perry

Abigail Perry is a Certified Story Grid Editor with professional teaching, literary agency, and film production experience. In addition to writing Story Grid masterwork guides, she works as a freelance editor and is the Content Editor for The Write Practice. Abigail loves stories that put women and diverse groups at the center of the story—and others that include superpowers and magic. Her favorite genres include: Smart Book Club Fiction, Women's Fiction, YA Fantasy, Historical Fiction, and unique memoirs. She also has a B.S. in TV, Radio, and Film and loves working on screenplays that are emotionally driven and/or full of action. You can learn more about Abigail on her website.

Ruthanne Reid

Best-Selling author Ruthanne Reid has led a convention panel on world-building, taught courses on plot and character development, and was keynote speaker for The Write Practice 2021 Spring Retreat.

Author of two series with five books and fifty short stories, Ruthanne has lived in her head since childhood, when she wrote her first story about a pony princess and a genocidal snake-kingdom, using up her mom’s red typewriter ribbon.

When she isn’t reading, writing, or reading about writing, Ruthanne enjoys old cartoons with her husband and two cats, and dreams of living on an island beach far, far away.

P.S. Red is still her favorite color.

10 Comments

“Damn, I hate those busy bodies. Auditors, they call themselves. Pains in the ass is what they are.” said Joe aloud to no one who could hear. The radio blasted the nightly news and told a grisly story about three kids poisoned by bad candy. Joe, shaking his head from side to side and mumbling,

“For crying-out-loud. They’re just kids. Who in their right mind would do that to kids?”

The traffic became lighter and Joe took the off ramp to his street. As he drove toward his house, he saw his children walking down the sidewalk trick or treating. After hearing the news about the poisoning, he wanted his kids to go home. He stopped the car and walked over to them.

“Jeremy, Julian, why are you out here alone. Your mother was supposed to wait until I got home?”

He stood over the children waiting for an answer. When none came, he grabbed an arm, one child in each hand, and marched them to the car. He opened the back door and demanded they get in.

“In the car. Don’t stand there, get in… I’ve had a rough day, keep this up and you’ll get a Halloween to remember.”

Jeremy, the cutest little goblin, turned to Joe, jumped on top of him, opened his enormous mouth, and swallowed Joe whole. Julian, danced around Jeremy singing

“Remember, remember, a Halloween to remember, A-tishoo! A-tishoo! We all fall down”

To the children passing by, the song sounded familiar. They started to sing,

“Ring-a-round the rosie, A pocket full of posies, Hush! Hush! Hush! Hush! We’ve all tumbled down.”

William – I enjoyed your story. Nicely developed in such a short span.

Great lead-in to the story as a way to introduce taking his kids home. One suggestion in the first paragraph … not sure you need “from side to side” after “shaking his head”, and you could modify it to ” Joe, shaking his head, mumbled, …” or “Joe shook his head and mumbled, …”

While it could be viewed as too abrupt (I didn’t think so), I love how Jeremy “the cutest little goblin” got right down to business and “jumped on top of [Joe], opened his enormous mouth, and swallowed Joe whole”, with Julian dancing and singing along. Those two lines plus Julian’s clever integration of “Remember, remember, a Halloween to remember” made for a ghoulishly delightful twist.

Thanks for the Halloween treat.

– Susan

Thanks Susan. I already made the change (Joe, shaking his head, mumbled). It reads much better. William

Hi thanks for writing this story it gave my students some ideas to write about since halloween is coming up

Thanks for the Halloween treat, Ruthanne. Great prompts.

I love prompt #4 with the grandma, I was devastated when my grammy died…. this will be good to write about.

Harold Saggerbob loves Halloween. Has his very own Pumpkin Club. But while the ‘pumpkins’ on his shelf, might be round, they are certainly not orange. And every Halloween, several kids disappear near his home…

It’s not really creepy but I tried it with my characters. English isn’t my first language so if you see any mistake, please let me know:

“Aymeric was eating alone in the kitchen. He didn’t have much appetite and spent more time looking at the dark sky through the window than eating. He sighed. He wished he had company. But that wouldn’t happen. Rose was back to his home and was probably already sleeping – flowers go to sleep with the sun, after all. The sky was covered in dark clouds so thick he couldn’t even see the Moon – and it was definitely up somewhere. He could feel it. It felt as if he had a knot in his throat. He covered his plate and put it in the fridge. He would eat it later, when he’d be hungrier. Suddenly, he stilled. He had heard footsteps. He closed the fridge slowly, careful not to make any noise. It wasn’t some kind of rodent. They were scared of lycanthropes. And Aymeric was able to recognize footsteps from rodents. With a hearing like his, no one could fool him. He put his fork and his knife in the sink, shrugging. It wasn’t as if the intruder could mess with his stuff unnoticed, anyway. What bothered him was that he didn’t heard the intruder enter. It was definitely strange. He didn’t know what or who it was but he’d better be careful. He grabbed a dagger and followed the noise. It definitely came from the cellar. He barged in there, determined to end all this quickly. The moon was rising and waxing, anyway, so he shouldn’t have any problem dealing with whoever it was. What he saw still surprised him. A tiny body in the middle of the room. Thick wavy blond hair, long ears, big grey eyes. Aymeric recognized the child immediately. When the little elf saw him, he rushed into his arms. “Hey, what’s wrong, champion?” He didn’t expect the kid to reply. The elf only hugged him tightly. Aymeric could feel his relief and his fear. The ability they had to travel between spaces and times was really something he couldn’t get used to…”

Noah was waking up. He had been knocked down while he was chased by a group of teens. It was Halloween. Noah left his home with Oscar his dog. He headed to park across the street where his friends were waiting for him for trick or treating around the neighborhood. As they got treats from the third house Noah and his friends headed for the next house. Suddenly a huge dark figure appeared and almost grabbed one of Noah’s friends. The group was actually chased by teenage boys who looked hideous beasts in their costumes. Noah and his friends were dispersed. Some managed to stick together, some made it back home. Noah lost the sense of direction and was running for a while now. Suddenly he stumbled and tripped over. He knocked his head hard on something and passed out. After he got up he could see dark figures with blazing eyes staring down at him. Noah jumped to his feet and fled into the woods that were the only easy hideout he could access fast. Oscar was behind him growling and barking at the dark figures that followed them into the woods. As he went farther it got more and more dark. The only thing that kept him going was Oscar who was right behind him keeping the dark figures at a distance. Noah saw bushes and managed to hide within. Oscar had stopped barking now and there was a deadly silence. Noah was panting and was trying to calm down. He was about to lie down when he saw a huge hand trying to grab him from within the bushes. Noah screamed in panic when Oscar jumped in between just in time to save him. Noah was running fast when suddenly he saw light piercing through the darkness. He ran towards the light fast. When he came near he couldn’t believe his eyes. The sun shone bright and there were beautiful flowers and trees. Far away he could see children playing. He quickly entered the garden as he had no better choice to escape the dark figures. Oscar slowly paced back and ran all the way home where Noah’s parents were mourning his death.

great Helloween

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A Brief History of Halloween

Jolly Hallowe'en. Art and Picture Collection, NYPL. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1587804

All Hallows' Eve, or Halloween as it is commonly referred, is a global celebration on October 31. It developed from the ancient Celtic ritual of Samhain, which was, in the simplest terms, a festival celebrating the changing of the seasons from light to dark (summer to winter). This would usually take place around November 1. 

Traditionally, a bonfire would be lit, sweets would be prepared, and costumes would be worn to ward off evil spirits as the ancient Celts believed that, at this time of year, the veil separating the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest.

Early Christian officials tried to impose their own holiday in an effort to stop their converts from practicing non-Christian festivals. Pope Gregory III deemed November 1, All Saints' Day, a celebration of Christian martyrs and saints, and November 2 became All Souls Day, a day for remembering the souls of the dead.  All Saints' Day later became known as All Hallows' Day, and the previous day, October 31, became known as All Hallows' Eve, then later, Halloween. Despite the best efforts of the church, people still continued to celebrate Halloween with traditional bonfires, costumes, treats, and a focus on spirits of the dead.

All this history is not meant to confuse Halloween and its Mexican cousin, Dia de Muertos, a.k.a. Dia de Los Muertos, a completely separate celebration that occurs during the same timeframe, October 31 to November 2. While Halloween focuses on the dark and grim aspects of death, Dia de Muertos is a celebration of the connection between the living and the dead, as well as life after death. 

The Witch. Art and Picture Collection, NYPL. NYPL Digital Collections, Image ID: 1587780

While Halloween originated in Europe, the holiday became the celebration we recognize today when it was brought to America by the early settlers. People originally carved out turnips and placed candles inside to ward off evil spirits, but Americans switched from turnips to pumpkins.

In 1820, Washington Irving’s short story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow , became one of the first distinctly American ghost stories centered around the holiday. Halloween received its biggest transformation within the last 50 or so years, thanks to the creation of big candy corporations, and, of course, Hollywood.

Because of its association with all things dark, spooky, and undead, Halloween became the go-to holiday for the release of most horror films and television shows. Director John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) is probably the best example, as it changed the public image of the holiday from a night for children to dress up in silly costumes to a night of pure terror.

Every year, cities and towns all over the world celebrate with festivals, parades, and theme park events. No matter how Halloween is celebrated, or which aspects of the holiday are celebrated, it has become a global phenomenon comparable to Christmas in terms of how widespread and important it is to the public conscience.

If you would like to learn more about Halloween beyond my extremely brief summary, or just want some spooky suggestions, please check out the recommended titles listed below. Happy Halloween! ( All summaries adapted from the publishers. )

For Little Goblins and Ghouls

The Halloween Tree

by Ray Bradbury

Eight costumed boys running to meet their friend Pipkin at the haunted house outside town encounter instead the huge and cadaverous Mr. Moundshroud. As Pipkin scrambles to join them, he is swept away by a dark Something, and Moundshroud leads the boys on the tail of a kite, through time and space, to search the past for their friend and the meaning of Halloween. 

National Geographic Readers: Halloween

by Laura F. Marsh

From visiting the pumpkin patch, to bobbing for apples, to picking out a favorite costume, Halloween is a magical time for young children. The fun and festivities are captured in this book, with full-color illustrations and simple easy-to-grasp text. In the spirit of this beloved holiday, this level one reader is sure to captivate and fascinate children.

Halloween Crafts

by Fay Robinson

Provides information about the origins and customs of Halloween, ideas for celebrating this holiday, and instructions for making a bat sock puppet, a construction paper haunted house, and a treat bag that looks like a coffin.

Dark Harvest 

by Norman Partridge

Halloween, 1963. They call him the October Boy, or Ol' Hacksaw Face, or Sawtooth Jack. Whatever his name, everybody in this small Midwestern town knows who he is. And how he rises from the cornfields every Halloween, a butcher knife in his hand, and makes his way toward town, where gangs of teenage boys eagerly await their chance to confront the legendary nightmare. Both the hunter and the hunted, the October Boy is the prize in an annual rite of life and death. Pete McCormick knows that killing the October Boy is his one chance to escape a dead-end future in this one-horse town. He's willing to risk everything, including his life, to be a winner for once. But before the night is over, Pete will look into the saw-toothed face of horror—and discover the terrifying true secret of the October Boy… 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

by Washington Irving; illustrated by Gris Grimly.

A superstitious schoolmaster, in love with a wealthy farmer's daughter, has a terrifying encounter with a headless horseman.

Graveyard for Lunatics

Halloween Night, 1954. A young, film-obsessed scriptwriter has just been hired at one of the great studios. An anonymous investigation leads from the giant Maximus Films backlot to an eerie graveyard separated from the studio by a single wall. There he makes a terrifying discovery that thrusts him into a maelstrom of intrigue and mystery—and into the dizzy exhilaration of the movie industry at the height of its glittering power.

Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween 

by Lisa Morton

Halloween aficionado Lisa Morton provides a thorough history of this spooky day. She begins by looking at how holidays like the Celtic Samhain, a Gaelic harvest festival, have blended with the British Guy Fawkes Day and the Catholic All Souls’ Day to produce the modern Halloween, and explains how the holiday was reborn in America, where costumes and trick-or-treat rituals have become new customs. 

Morton takes into account the influence of related but independent holidays, especially the Mexican Day of the Dead, as well as the explosion in popularity of haunted attractions and the impact of such events as 9/11 and the economic recession on the celebration today. Trick or Treat also examines the effect Halloween has had on popular culture through the literary works of Washington Irving and Ray Bradbury, films like  Halloween  and  The Nightmare Before Christmas , and television shows such as  Buffy the Vampire Slayer  and  The Simpsons .

Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night

by Nicholas Rogers

Drawing on a fascinating array of sources, from classical history to Hollywood films, Rogers traces Halloween as it emerged from the Celtic festival of Samhain (summer's end), picked up elements of the Christian Hallowtide (All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day), arrived in North America as an Irish and Scottish festival, and evolved into an unofficial but large-scale holiday by the early 20th century. He examines the 1970s and '80s phenomena of Halloween sadism (razor blades in apples) and inner-city violence (arson in Detroit), as well as the immense influence of the horror film genre on the reinvention of Halloween as a terror-fest.

Throughout his vivid account, Rogers shows how Halloween remains, at its core, a night of inversion, when social norms are turned upside down, and a temporary freedom of expression reigns supreme. He examines how this very license has prompted censure by the religious right, occasional outrage from law enforcement officials, and appropriation by left-leaning political groups.

Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween

by David J. Skal

Using a mix of personal anecdotes and brilliant social analysis, Skal examines the amazing phenomenon of Halloween, exploring its dark Celtic history and illuminating why it has evolved—in the course of a few short generations—from a quaint, small-scale celebration into the largest seasonal marketing event outside of Christmas.

Traveling the country, Skal profiles a wide cross-section of American hard-nosed businessmen who see Halloween in terms of money; fundamentalists who think it is blasphemous; practicing witches who view it as sacred; and more ordinary men and women who go to extraordinary lengths, on this one night only, to transform themselves and their surroundings into elaborate fantasies. Firmly rooted in a deeper cultural and historical analysis, these interviews seek to understand what the various rituals and traditions associated with the holiday have to say about our national psyche.

Halloween: Vintage Holiday Graphics

edited by Jim Heimann

Trick or treat (smell my feet!) A guaranteed trip down memory lane, this book celebrates All Hallows' Eve in American graphic and print media from the early 1900s to the '60s. Featuring witches, ghouls, ghosts, and jack-o-lanterns, the scariest postcards and decorations, and the silliest costumes and candid photos are collected here. With an introduction tracing the unexpected history of Halloween and its traditions, Vintage Halloween is a nostalgic tribute to one of America's favorite holidays.

Dressed for Thrills: 100 Years of Halloween Costumes & Masquerade

photographs by Phyllis Galembo, text by Mark Alice Durant, foreword by Valerie Steele

A tour of 100 years of American Halloween attire features a wealth of images depicting revelers and trick-or-treaters in disguise and enhanced by special lighting effects, in a volume complemented by a history of the holiday and Halloween fashion.

A Season With the Witch: The Magic and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts

by J. W. Ocker

Salem, Massachusetts may be the strangest city on the planet. A single event in its 400 years of history—the Salem Witch Trials of 1692—transformed it into the Capital of Creepy in America. But Salem is a seasonal town—and its season happens to be Halloween. Every October, this small city of 40,000 swells to close to half a million as witches, goblins, ghouls, and ghosts (and their admirers) descend on Essex Street.

For the fall of 2015, occult enthusiast and Edgar Award–winning writer J.W. Ocker moved his family of four to downtown Salem to experience firsthand a season with the witch, visiting all of its historical sites and macabre attractions. In between, he interviews its leaders and citizens, its entrepreneurs and visitors, its street performers and Wiccans, its psychics and critics, creating a picture of this unique place and the people who revel in, or merely weather, its witchiness.

The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween: Celebrating the Dark Half of the Year by Jean Markale

During the night of Samhain, the Celtic precursor of today's holiday, the borders between life and death were no longer regarded as insurmountable barriers. Two-way traffic was temporarily permitted between this world and the Other World, and the wealth and wisdom of the sidhe, or fairy folk, were available to the intrepid individuals who dared to enter their realm.

Jean Markale enriches our understanding of how the transition from the light to the dark half of the year was a moment in which time stopped and allowed the participants in the week-long festival to attain a level of consciousness not possible in everyday life, an experience we honor in our modern celebrations of Halloween.  

Samhain, Rituals, Recipes & Lore for Halloween by Diana Rajchel

Llewellyn's Sabbat Essentials series explores the old and new ways of celebrating the seasonal rites that are the cornerstones in the witch's year. A well-rounded introduction to Samhain, this attractive book features rituals, recipes, lore, and correspondences. It also includes hands-on information for modern celebrations, spells and divination, recipes and crafts, invocations and prayers, and more!

Haunted Air: Anonymous Halloween Photographs from c.1875–1955  by Ossian Brown

Recommended by Billy Parrott

The photographs in Haunted Air provide an extraordinary glimpse into the traditions of this macabre festival from ages past, and form an important document of photographic history. These are the pictures of the dead: family portraits and mementos of the treasured, now unrecognizable, and others.

The Pagan Mysteries of Halloween: Celebrating the Dark Half of the Year

by Jean Markale

Jean Markale enriches our understanding of how the transition from the light to the dark half of the year was a moment in which time stopped and allowed the participants in the week-long festival to attain a level of consciousness not possible in everyday life, an experience we honor in our modern celebrations of Halloween.

Samhain, Rituals, Recipes & Lore for Halloween

by Diana Rajchel

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31 Scary Short Stories for Halloween Month

• Post author: Erin
• Post published: October 14, 2021
• Post category: Teens / Adults

I love a good scary short story! And even though I don’t need an excuse to read them year-round, October (or, Halloween Month) is always a great opportunity to sit down with some of my absolute favorites! This list will be a combination of some classics you’ve already read, as well as more obscure titles that might not have crossed your radar. Whether you read one or all of them, I hope you enjoy these 31 chilling tales!

1: The Lottery (Shirley Jackson) This is one of those stories that starts out in such a way that you don’t even realize that it’s a horror story until it’s too late. Without giving too much away, the story is about a group of people in a small town, coming together for the annual lottery. That’s it. Nothing suspicious or scary here, right?

2: The Monkey’s Paw (W. W. Jacobs) A man is visited by an old friend from the army who reveals that he has in his possession a strange bit of magic–an old, mummified monkey’s paw that has the ability to grant three different people three wishes each. But, he warns, the wishes that the paw grants do not always happen the way that you want or expect.

3: Something Fell from Aloft (Alvin Schwartz) This is one of my favorite scary stories to read aloud. A sailor recounts the chilling events that happened during a voyage out to sea, and the horrors that do not stay buried.

4: The Willows (Algernon Blackwood) Two friends go for a canoe trip down the River Danube. But, when they arrive at a grove of willow trees, what they see there will be the stuff of nightmares.

5: The Minister’s Black Veil (Nathaniel Hawthorne) During a sermon on secret sin, a small-town minister appears before his congregation wearing a black veil over his face and refuses to remove it or explain why he wears it, to the deep consternation of his congregation.

6: The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar (Edgar Allan Poe) An experiment to halt death, by putting an individual under hypnotic trance at the moment of expiration backfires horribly, leaving the dying man trapped in a state of suspended animation, neither truly alive or dead, and physically unable to die, as his body slowly breaks down.

7: The Bottle Imp (Robert Louis Stevenson) Keawe buys a strange, unbreakable bottle from a wretched old man, who tells him that an imp residing in the bottle will grant his every desire. However, if he dies with the bottle in his possession, his soul is bound for hell. In order to get rid of the bottle, he must sell it to someone else for less than he paid.

8: The Kit-Bag (Algernon Blackwood) After covering a particularly gruesome murder trial, Johnson is just happy to be able to get away from it all and go on a trip. The night before he’s scheduled to leave, he asks a friend to loan him a kit-bag that he can use for the trip, and is haunted by a ghostly phenomena that leaves him doubting his senses.

9: The Devil and Daniel Webster (Stephen Vincent Benet) After a surge of back luck leaves him broke and nearly starving, Jabez Stone makes an unfortunate deal with the devil–his soul for seven years of prosperity. But, when his time is up, and the devil grows impatient with his requested extensions, Jabez turns to the best lawyer in New Hampshire to help him save his soul.

10: The Outsider (H.P. Lovecraft) He has been living isolated in the castle for as long as he can remember. But, one day, our mysterious narrator decides to leave the quiet protection of his home and go in search for human contact.

11: The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman) A woman suffering from postpartum depression finds that a suggested summer trip and a restful getaway turns into suffocating psychological battle. Prevented from reading or writing or anything too stimulating as a cure for her depression, her mental state begins to unravel when she starts seeing a woman behind the yellow wallpaper in her room.

12: Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Samuel Taylor Coleridge) A wedding guest is accosted by a mysterious mariner who tells him of the horrifying fate which befell him while lost at sea, and the evil forces which battled for his soul.

13: The Speckled Band (Arthur Conan Doyle) Sherlock Holmes and Watson are hired by a young woman who suspects that her stepfather murdered her sister–while she was sleeping all alone in a locked room.

14: Smee (A. M. Burrage) A Christmas party game takes a dark turn after the guests hear a story about a young woman dying during a game of “Smee”– which is similar to hide and seek and played in complete darkness. To make matters worse, the revelers realize that there is an extra player at the party, and no one knows who she is.

15: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving) Either a long short story or a short novella, this classic tale is the story of a schoolteacher who scoffs at the local legend of the headless horseman–and does so to his great peril.

16: The Strange Adventures of a Private Secretary in New York (Algernon Blackwood) Sent by his employer to get some documents signed by an old eccentric, a secretary finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a potentially deadly situation when he’s forced to spend the night at the man’s house.

17: A Rose for Emily (William Faulkner) It’s the day of the funeral of old Emily Grierson, an eccentric who has been living her life as though trapped in the past in very odd and even gruesome ways, such as refusing the bury the body of her father after he passes away. Throughout the story, the narrator brings to life some of the stranger points of Emily’s life, crafting a story that is both darkly beautiful and disturbing.

18: The Mark of the Beast (Rudyard Kipling) During a New Year’s Eve party, a group of English soldiers stationed in India become drunk and one of them desecrates the temple of the monkey god. Expecting a lethal punishment, they are surprised when the worst that happens is a leper priest biting the offending soldier. But, after he begins to act strangely, the group starts to wonder if perhaps there’s more to the punishment then they realized.

19: The Canterville Ghost (Oscar Wilde) An angry British ghost does everything he can to scare away a loud, outspoken American family that moves into his house after his death. At turns delighted and oblivious, the Americans are anything but frightened, making the increasingly desperate ghost’s job harder and harder in this hilarious ghost story.

20: The Body-Snatcher (Robert Louis Stevenson) In order to acquire a steady collection of corpses for his anatomy classes, a doctor turns to a disreputable resurrection man to provide the needed cadavers. But, when the doctor’s assistant learns just how the bodies are acquired, everything takes a very dark turn.

21: Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad (M. R. James) A professor who claims he does not believe in the supernatural discovers a very old whistle in a crack in a rock on the beach during his vacation. He blows on the whistle and accidentally summons a creature beyond his realm of understanding. This terrifying tale kept me on the edge of my seat until I finished reading!

22: The Drum (Alvin Schwartz) Two children become very naughty when their mysterious new playmate promises them a very special toy in return for bad behavior. This chilling cautionary tale is one of my favorites to read aloud, and the imagery is quite chilling. Best of all, there’s no gore, just that cold heavy feeling in the pit of your stomach when the story ends.

23: The Call of Cthulhu (H.P. Lovecraft) Often considered one of Lovecraft’s greatest works (and certainly one of his most famous!) this tale of terror recounts the discovery of the nameless elder gods living deep under the water, who are starting to awaken from their supernatural slumber, threatening the fate of humankind.

24: The Vampyre (John William Polidori) Crafted at the same party that produced Frankenstein , this tale is considered to be the first of the vampire genre. When a young Englishman meets the mysterious Lord Ruthven, he soon realizes that the aristocrat possesses a secret that threatens everything he cares about.

25: Mr. Arcularis (Conrad Aiken) A patient recovering from a heart surgery goes on a trip to England by ship. While on the ship, he becomes acquainted with Mr. Arcularis, another passenger, who has an unsettling habit of sleepwalking, and each night disappears deeper and deeper into the bowels of the ship.

26: The Hand (Guy de Maupassant) During a visit to his new neighbor’s home, a judge learns of a terrible feud that the man had participated in, resulting in his taking his opponent’s severed hand as a trophy. But, there’s something horrible and grotesque about the hand, including its singular size and the chain around its wrist.

27: August Heat (William F. Harvey) An artist sketches the portrait of a killer, just after sentencing has been handed down. When he arrives at the workshop of a stonemason later that day, he discovers the mason perfectly matches the sketch in his pocket, and is working on a tombstone with the artist’s name on it.

28: An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (Ambrose Bierce) A Southern planter and supporter of the Confederate cause is about to be lynched by Union soldiers. The story recounts the fateful event and what happens next.

29: The Devil and Tom Walker (Washington Irving) A greedy man strikes a deal with the devil in order to obtain a notorious pirate’s treasure. This story is actually one of the inspirations for The Devil and Daniel Webster (#9 on this list!)

30: The Signal Man (Charles Dickens) A no-nonsense narrator has an encounter with a superstitious railroad employee who believes that he saw a ghost.

31: The Horla (Guy de Maupassant) Told in the form of a journal, a rich man finds himself in terrible anguish after he unthinkingly waves at a strange ship, thus inviting the supernatural horror onboard into his life. This story is considered the inspiration for The Call of Cthulhu (#23 on this list!).

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Best Descriptive Essay Examples

Halloween essay.

654 words | 3 page(s)

Every year, Halloween is celebrated on October 31. There are a variety of traditions associated with celebration of Halloween, but one of the most recognizable is trick-or-treating. On Halloween night, children dress up in costume and walk around their neighborhoods, knocking on doors and asking for candy. Many adults dress up as well, and some people even celebrate Halloween by dressing up their pets. In 2016, the most popular costumes for children were action hero and superhero costumes, while the most popular adult costume was a witch.1 An estimated 10 percent of Americans dressed up their pet as a pumpkin. Candy is the dominant food tradition associated with Halloween, but many of the most popular Halloween candies are available year-round. According to a 2017 survey, the top 5 most popular Halloween candies were Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Snickers, Twix, Kit Kats, and M&Ms.2 Even though candy corn is one of the few candies that is uniquely associated with Halloween, it was ranked second among the least-liked Halloween candies in the same survey.2

There are also other traditions associated with the celebration of Halloween, including haunted houses and community carnivals. In the days leading up to Halloween, many people decorate their houses with common symbols of Halloween, including spider webs, witches, skeletons, and – most prominently – jack-o’-lanterns. To make a jack-o’-lantern, people buy a large pumpkin, cut a hole in the top to remove the seeds and inner flesh of the pumpkin, and then use various sharp tools to carve an image on the front of the pumpkin. Then, they place a small candle or light inside the pumpkin to light up the image. Although it is traditional to carve a face on the front of a jack-o’-lantern, artistic pumpkin-carvers now carve elaborate images on the front of their pumpkins. People can also purchase templates to help them create jack-o’-lanterns that will truly impress their neighbors and any trick-or-treaters who visit their house.

Use your promo and get a custom paper on "Halloween Essay".

These traditions have provided ample opportunity for retailers in the United States to capitalize on Halloween. In 2017, an estimated $9.1 billion was spent on Halloween festivities, which was an increase from $8.4 billion in 2016.1 This came out to an estimated $86.13 per household.1 Of the total spending, costumes accounted for the greatest proportion, at about $3.4 billion, while candy and decorations were the next two highest areas of spending, with each accounting for an estimated $2.7 billion.1 In total, about 7 out of 10 Americans said they planned to celebrate Halloween, and 95% of them said they would buy candy.1

Clearly, Halloween is a major commercial holiday in the United States, but it is important to recognize that the holiday is rooted in spiritual and religious traditions. Historians believe that the original precursor to Halloween was a Celtic festival known as Samhain, which can be traced back about two thousand years.3 Samhain was celebrated on November 1, and the pagans believed that on the night before, October 31, people returned from the dead as ghosts.3 They wore masks to disguise themselves from ghosts and set out food and wine on their doorsteps to prevent ghosts from coming inside in search of food.3 In later years, the Christian Church co-opted the Pagan traditions by naming November 1 as All Saints Day and the night of October 31 as All Hallows Eve.

Despite these roots, it is clear that Halloween has now developed into a largely secular holiday. Christians celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day on November 1 and November 2, but for the majority of Americans, the night of October 31, Halloween is merely an opportunity to dress up, eat candy, and have fun with spooky symbols and decorations.

• Halloween headquarters. National Retail Federation. 2017. https://nrf.com/resources/consumer-research-and-data/holiday-spending/halloween-headquarters. Accessed 23 February 2018.
• Turner ML. 10 most loved and hated Halloween candies. Forbes. 30 October 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/marciaturner/2017/10/30/top-10-best-and-worst-halloween-candies/#dd976ef59705. Accessed 23 February 2018.
• Sena A. The origins of Halloween. University of New Mexico Newsroom. 29 October 2015. https://news.unm.edu/news/the-origins-of-halloween. Accessed 23 February 2018.

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