luni, 24 septembrie 2007

HALLOWEEN


Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31st. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, costume parties, viewing horror films, visiting "haunted houses", and participating in traditional autumn activities such as hayrides (which may have "haunted" themes).
Halloween originated under the name of Samhain as a Pagan festival among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries have embraced the holiday as a part of American pop culture in the late twentieth century.
The term Halloween (and its older rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening of/before "All Hallows' Day", also known as "All Saints' Day".

Halloween did not become a holiday in America until the 19th century.
In the United States, Halloween has become the sixth most profitable holiday (after Christmas, Mother's Day, Valentines Day, Easter, and Father's Day). In the 1990s, many manufacturers began producing a larger variety of Halloween yard decorations; prior to this a majority of decorations were homemade. Some of the most popular yard decorations are jack-o'-lanterns, scarecrows, witches, orange and purple string lights, inflatable decorations (such as spiders, pumpkins, mummies and vampires), and animatronic window and door decorations. Other popular decorations are foam tombstones and gargoyles.
The carved pumpkin, lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols.

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