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The history of Halloween

It's sometimes funny, sometimes frightening, sometimes strange...but without a doubt, the Halloween candies always taste good.

Behind all the costumes, candies and pumpkins, there lies the strange story of Halloween...

A long time ago, Halloween was merely a celebration to symbolize the transition between the warm season to the cold season.  During this dark night, it was thought that all the dead, ghosts and ghouls, and the spirits of the night, would come back on the earth in order to haunt the living.  In 840AD, Pope Gregoire IV decided to establish the "the Day of the Dead" which was also known as, All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween).

One of the traditions which was started was the concept of the Jack o'lantern. To commemorate the legend ofthe Jack o’ lantern, who was said to be the man who gave his soul to the devil and doomed to walk in hell with a lantern, people from all around the world, would put a candle inside of a turnip. Many years later, the turnip was replaced by the pumpkin, because it was much easlier to hollow out....

Read entire article at Vancouver Observer