As in many schools, Halloween is an up and coming event where the little children become little goblins and get all wound up and excited. I am currently trying to keep a lid on it, no big decorations yet even though I am greeted in the morning with the sound of “Mr. Howwwwiiiitt, why aren’t we setting uppp?” in the whiny tone that causes parents to cover their ears, shut their eyes and dream of quiet beaches and soft sand. My answer, mostly, is because often the party in the future becomes the focus of today. I am all for the little goblins dressing up, but it does not need to be a 2 week fiesta where every moring is halloweening. Of course then I started to think, what is Halloween about anyways? It has got to be more than me spending money on strangers kids to feed them…I could spend that money on my kids, or more importantly on me and my candy. So, before we get all focused on decorating, I think we should find out what this idea of Halloween is all about. So please, tell me what is Halloween, once we know that then we can worry about how to celebrate it.
Mr. H's 5th Grade Blog 
Hi Mr. Howitt,
I think Halloween is about dressing up in costume and going to people’s houses to get candy. But on Wikipedia it says that Halloween came from a Celtic festival called Samhain and that trick-or-treating dated back all the way back to the Middle Ages. At that time, on November 1, poor people would go door-to-door offering to make prayers for the dead in exchange for food. This year I want to be Frankenstein and I hope I get a lot of candy.
Halloween is a festival with Celtic/Gaelic roots. It was known as Samhain where it was beileived that demons and monsters could cross over into this world. People would dress up and try to scare them back into their world. Over time people started to dress up for fun and do stuff like trick or treating, or carving Jackolanterns. Eventually the old rituals and ways were forgotten and people started to make it into a holiday. Almost no one knows the old procedures and they forgot.
Halloween started 2000 years ago in Ireland and the UK. It was sort of like their New Year’s Eve because their year ended on October 31st. Also it was between winter and fall and lots of animals died over the winter. They believed that the skies opened on that night and the spirits came down and mingled through people’s houses. Some people dressed in costumes and walked around their nieghborhood making noise to scare the spirits away.
Trick or treating came in because legend tells that fairies went around dressed as humans begging for food at each door.
Well Mr Howitt, Halloween is actually a day long ago when the americans dressed up not for fun but to scare away the “evil spirits”. It was not really intended for fun as it is now but a night where the evil creatures were believed to be let free. the people afraid that the creatures would come to their home so they would dress up to scare away the spirits. This is what I was taught about the history of halloween.
halloween is the day of october 31st where kids like me, or your kid, goes around in scary costumes, or knock on people’s doors to ask for candy, or what we call, “trick or treating”. usually there are parties, maybe playing pranks, and even going to haunted attractions. and especially telling scary stories, or horror movies.
the origin of the name Halloween came from the 16th century, representing the Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even (“evening”.
all around the world Halloween is expressed greatly by kids, and as stated before, go around celebrating.
Holloween is celebrated because of all saints day.
Hi Mr. Howitt,
Halloween is a holiday that happens every year on October 31. The main idea of Halloween is for kids to dress up in a costume, then to go trick-or-treating around their neighborhood. Trick-or-treating is when when people (usually kids) go around their neighborhood in costumes, expecting to collect candy from their neighbors. As a tradition, the only way to get the candy from your neighbors is saying “trick-or-treat”. Kids usually go around their whole neighborhood bringing a bag, and afterwards, they will end up with a bag-full of candy. Lots of other activities also occur. Such as: playing pranks, decorating houses with halloween decorations, telling scary stories, and carving pumpkins. When you carve a pumpkin, you usually carve a face of some kind onto the pumpkin. After that, you put a candle in it and it will light up. After you do all that, it is considered a jack-o’-lantern. This is all I can tell you.
From,
Zach
Halloween is when you get to dress in costumes, and go around and people will give you candy. halloween is also very spooky. Originaly it comes from America. It is a tradition which they repeat yearly. It became popular all around the world. Haloween is a celabration of dead.
Hi Mr.Howitt
I think Halloween is really about spending time with family and friends. Halloween isn’t really about decorating and getting Mr.Howitt’s candy. It’s also about having fun and celebrating “Saint Hallows eve”. Mrs Bucknall told us that these teenage girls went telling a guy that a some people were witches. I found the story scary and enjoyable in a way. Halloween is about the dead coming to life to visit. Every country has their own way of celebrating Halloween some counties don’t even celebrate but they know about Halloween. I can’t wait to find out what we’re going to do this Halloween in class with Mr.Howitt
Dear Mr.Howitt,
The holiday Halloween was created because people belived that on that day on midnight goblins, witches, vampires and other monsters gathered and thre a wild party until the break of dawn. But in todays time lots of things have changed. The monsters were children! We go knocking on doors saying trick o’ treat and we get candy. So thats what Halloween is. A day when children go knocking on doors and ask for candy which brings fun and happiness to every child.
Dear Mr. Howitt,
I think Halloween is a time when kids get run around and get sugar rushes when they stuff all their candy into their mouths. Also I think Halloween is a time when people get to open up and let their personality come out not their shyness in class or anywhere! When kids dress up it normally has to do with their personality’s like if I where a witch I might like reading, writing, hearing, or seeing things about witches. Thats what I think Halloween is.
Maggie D.
Halloween is all about all saints day. All saints day is on the 1 Nov. when christians gather to respect all saints
i think that halloween is dressing up in coutums and geting candy. i also i think halloween is about ghost that pepole have seen,and faimly members that hve died in the past years.
Dear.Mr.Howitt
Long ago halloween was celebated because people wanted to scare away the evil spirits.The way they would scare the evil spirits is that they would dress up is scary costumes.The type of costumes that they would dress up in are witch, vampie, devil. The reason they wanted to get rid of the evil spirits is because if they had done something bad the evil will do something mean to you or they would haunt you or also put a curse on you.
Camille
We celebrate Halloween because of an old Celtic (Irish) tradition called All Hallows where they believed could dress up in masks and costumes to fool the evil spirits so they wouldn’t kill them.
Halloween was first discovered 2000 years ago I Britain and Ireland. Back then a group of people called Celts owned the land. On 1 November and 31 of October people celebrated samhain. On samhain people will sacrifice crops for the gods. People thought that there was evil spirits that roamed the earth during samhain. People got scared so they left food out of the houses for the spirits from then on people gave food to other people and sown people gave candy to people. That is how Halloween was discovered.