Dear LPG,

As Halloween returns we can see all the costumes and its paraphernalia.  Every year we find a few more things in the shops that weren’t there the year before.  This year, apart from the lanterns, lights and costumes. I notice that the food industry has got in on the act with even more visually unsavoury exhibits which taste fine but, would I really want to pop one in my mouth?   I have always been a bit squeamish which is most probably why, in my opinion, bloodshot eyeball sweets will remain the most worrying thing in that market for a while.

But all we pensioners really need to do is to make sure that we have a decent supply of sweets available, and it is a good idea to put a chair in the front hall to save you having to make longer trips backwards and forwards as the doorbell rings continuously for an hour or two tonight.

I know that it is all supposed to be innocent fun but, like Christmas and so many other holidays, it has morphed into a day that the shops remind us of far too early each year; a day to trick or treat and compare costumes, food and worrying decorations and not a lot else.

I am thinking a little in advance but with little else to do one day recently, I decided to find out exactly what we are supposed to be celebrating on this day and I was quite surprised.  According to internet history lessons we are supposed to be warding off evil spirits primarily, and so I suppose that all the ghoulish overtones of our celebrations are appropriate, although I worry about the little ones being out there with all those bad spirits.   Also, what sweets, floating apples, pumpkins and fun have to do with the serious business of warding off evil spirits continues to puzzle me somewhat, although I suspect that it will continue to be a little subdued as it was this time last year.

Did you know that this custom goes back thousands of years and was a mixture of a ritual designed to protect the crops and celebrate New Year before the Gregorian calendar? It was also a night when it was good to look like a spirit if you went out because this was the one day of the year when the two worlds merged and the spirits of the dead were all allowed to roam the world.

As you can tell I found quite a lot of thoughts online and some made interesting reading (provided you have a strong constitution). Having done so, I thought this might be a day to share a bit about why we all do what we do on the day…? 

WD, Longfield.

WD has found us some information on the history of Halloween, but LPG again warns that some of it might be better watched during the day with a friend…

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