The leaves are finally starting to turn from spring green to vibrant colors of red, yellow, and orange. I personally love fall weather the only thing missing this year is the freezing cold nights and the warm to hot days. Usually the leaves have fallen and I have been raking them up into piles to haul away, or left for the neighbor kids to jump through or I should say jump into and fling them about the yard as a Halloween prank.
Halloween originates back 2000 years to the Celts, and to what we now call Ireland. The United Kingdom and France use to celebrate their New Year on November 1. Marking the end of summer and the crop harvest and the beginning of the dark cold winter, which was associated with death. Many people died in the winter months. The Celts celebrated Samhaim on October 31 the night that they believed the ghosts of the dead returned to earth, other than the ghosts causing havoc the Celts believed the ghosts made it easier for the Druids or Celtic priests to predict the future, these people depended on the environment for all their comforts and hardships so these predictions gave comfort for them during the cold dark weary winter months.
Huge bonfires were used as sacred instruments where the Druids and the Celts gathered and burned crops and animals as sacrifices to the higher beings, the Celts wore costumes during these activities, the costumes were usually animal heads, and hides, fortune telling was a custom that they also performed at the celebration.
After the Romans conquered the Celts, the Romans incorporated a couple of their holidays into the Celts celebrations in order to unite the peoples. The Romans first holiday was Feralia a day late in October where the Romans remembers the passing of their dead, Pomona was the second celebration the day was to honor Pomona the Roman goddess of fruit and trees, incorporating these in to the Celts celebration, thence where bobbing for apples came about.
By the year 800 the spreading of Christianly came to Ireland, the pope wanted to basically get rid of the Celts holidays and replace it with a church sanctioned holiday and dedicated Nov. 1 as All Saints Day, a day to honor all saints and martyrs, it was also call "All Hallows" and the night before, the eve of Samhaim, was called "All Hallows Eve" as time went on the name became HALLOWEEN. Later around 1000 AD the church made Nov 2, All Souls day, the event was celebrate much the same as the Celts had celebrated with bon fires, costumes, with witches, angles, devils, all considered Hallowmas days.
No matter how the holiday came about, or what wild and scary stories are attached to the celebration from the past or the present, it is a night for ghosts, ghouls, witches and goblins.

Watch out for the littlest goblins the fairies and a princess or two; with pumpkins filled with candy, it is a night of scary fun.