Out of all the holidays we celebrate each year, Halloween has always been my favorite. There is just something about the excitement we used to feel when picking out costumes of anything you could ever dream of for Trick-Or-Treating. The feeling of coming home was even better with bags stuffed with all sorts of candy, then eating all of it the very same night. Every Halloween without exception, I always had the time of my life.

Halloween has been around for thousands of years and didn’t even start out as the fun, candy-filled night we are familiar with. Halloween actually started a really long time ago, dating back over 2000 years ago with a festival called Samhain (pronounced “sow-in”). It originated from the Celts who lived in Ireland and parts of Europe. They believed that on October 31st, the line between the living and the dead became very thin, allowing spirits to come back to earth. This is how the tradition started, because they would dress up in costumes and light bonfires to scare the spirits away. When Christianity spread, they added a holiday called All Saints’ Day on November 1st, and the night before became known as All Hallows’ Eve, or just Halloween. Of course, later on, the tradition evolved, and we do it today for fun and candy.

All around the world, families celebrate Halloween differently. For my family, the day consists of frantically picking out costumes for the night, as well as buying tons of candy for the dozens of Trick-Or-Treaters coming to our door. There is also the planning that happens leading up to Halloween, like putting up decorations. Every year, houses get decorated with skeletons, spider webs, scary monsters, you name it. One of my favorite parts of decorating is carving Jack-O-Lanterns. Jack-O-Lanterns are pumpkins that have faces carved into them, and every Halloween, I am obsessed with finding the best pumpkin. It had to be round, a beautiful shade of orange, and a short, pretty stem. Additionally, it’s not only about the result, because the process of making all of this is truly the most fun.

In conclusion, there is so much to Halloween: haunted houses, corn mazes, and much much more! This makes it arguably one of the best holidays. If you haven’t celebrated Halloween before, whether its finding a comfortable spot to settle down and read a spooky book, seeing a horror movie, or Trick-Or-Treating, I strongly consider doing so. It’s somethingno matter how old you get.