Awakening Lotus

Halloween is one of the world's oldest traditions and is celebrated every year on 31 October through activities such as trick-or-treating, costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories and watching horror films.

Halloween is a mixture of traditions including the Celtic Festival of Samhain (“summer’s end") where Saman, the Lord of Death, would escort Souls to the Afterlife.  Because Ancestral ghosts were free to roam the Earth, town folk would disguise themselves in ghoulish costumes so the Spirits of the dead would pass by without incident.  The masked villagers would also form parades to lead the Spirits out of town and food was offered to appease Saman and the Spirits.

Halloween was also influenced by the Roman festival of Pomona (Goddess of the Harvest) who contributed the feast of nuts and fruits with apples being a symbol of love and fertility.  Also the Roman festival of "Parentalia", a nine day festival where sacred offerings such as flowers and food were gifted at family tombs to strengthen the protective ties between the living and the dead.

Christianity then assimilated Samhain and Panoma into the Catholic rituals of All Saints and All Souls Days.  Pope Gregory III moved All Saints Day (or All Hallow’s Day, in England) from 1 May to 1 November to coincide with the Pagan festivals.  The eve of All Saints Day, 31 October, became All Hallow Even, then Hallowe’en, and then Halloween.  In addition, a French monastic order called the Cluniacs created All Soul’s Day to commemorate all departed Christian souls not just the Saints.