In the UK we celebrate the night of 31 October as Halloween. It's an ancient celebration dating back the time of the Druids who recognised two seasons of the year, winter and summer. This night was the end of summer and the beginning of winter, and this was the night, it was believed, that the spirits of the dead roamed the earth. Anybody who ventured forth on this night would risk being taken by a milign spirit, to to make themselves.
unrecognisable to the spirits, they would camouflage themselves, or else
stay indoors. They used lights (candles, or other means of light such as a burning flame to keep the spirits away from them). In the UK, when I was a
child, we used turnips hollowed out, cut faces into the turnip, and went around with them. Trick or Treat didn't exist then in the UK, but we had parties when we did apple bobbing, and ate parkin and gingerbread men.
The clocks went back an hour (and still do), also marking the start of winter. We would sit round the fire and have soup and bread, and ham and potatoes, and then the parkin, a cake made with treacle, wholemeal flour, ginger and dark sugar and other ingredients. It's quite a sticky cake.
This thread reminds me of all of that, and it's nice to be able to share it with you.
di reston
Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde
isn't tomorrow Halloween Eve? tonight is Matt Night. lock up your toilet paper and eggs!!! 
