We celebrate Halloween each year  on October 31. It has its beginnings in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. Many traditions related to Halloween have developed. The day is often associated with the colors  orange and black, and is represented by symbols such as  the jack-o’-lantern and witches. Some Halloween activities that still exist today include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending Halloween parties, haunted houses, bonfires, pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.

The Halloween traditions of trick-or-treating was  brought to America in the 1840s by Irish escaping the Great Potato Famine. The Irish peasants would beg the rich for food. They played practical jokes on those who refused. The rich handed out cookies, candies, and fruit to avoid the pranks. This has turned into our present day trick-or-treating.

The tradition of the jack-o-lantern trace back to an old Irish tale. In this tale a man named Stingy Jack was unable to enter Heaven. Because of his stingy ways,  he was  turned away by the Devil. Stingy Jack wandered all over the world, searching for a place to rest. Stingy Jack used a burning coal in a hollowed out turnip to light his way. When the Irish tradition reached America, people began carving pumpkins instead of turnips.

Witches were thought to be wise enough to predict the future. Orange and black became Halloween colors because of orange is associated with harvests and black is associated with death.

Since it is Halloween, I thought I would share this cute Halloween video sing-a-long. This Is Halloween is the song of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) written by Danny Elfman. Hope you enjoy!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Tags: halloween, halloween sing-a-long