Hallowe'en

This is, of course, a contraction of "All Hallows' Eve", and refers to the following day - November 1st - which is All Saints' Day, or as it was called in earlier times, All Hallows. But where does the association with ghosties and ghoulies come from? Well the Celts used to celebrate - if that's the appropriate word - the end of October as the dividing point between the warmth of summer and the cold of winter, and they believed that the spirits of the dead could fall through the crack between the two, as it were, and for a short time enter the real world. To keep them at bay, they would light fires and throw the bones of sacrificed animals on them - bonfire was originally bonefire! Trick or treat may be a recent American invention, but it has its origins in the medieval custom of "souling" whereby young people would go from house to house offering to say prayers for the dead in return for money or specially baked sweet "soul-cakes". Go on, ask me another!