Why Do We Celebrate Halloween - The Spookiest Holiday Of The Year

Halloween is full of costumes and candy, trick-or-treating and terrifying haunted houses, pumpkins and black cats. But just where did Halloween come from? Why are we celebrating?

The history of Halloween goes back 2000 years. Many believe that Halloween's origins are found in the Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts, who were located in Ireland, the UK and the northern parts of France, celebrated their New Year on the first of November. Samhain was celebrated the night before the New Year.

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The New Year, Celts believed, marked summer's end, harvest time, and the start of dark, cold winter months. Those winter months were associated with death by these people. On October 31, the night before the New Year, the Celts celebrated Samhain. This day, they believed, was when the ghosts of the deceased returned to earth because the boundaries between the living world and the dead world blurred.

Why Do We Celebrate Halloween - The Spookiest Holiday Of The Year

When we think of "Trick-Or-Treating", the origins can probably be found in the English All Souls' Day parades. During these celebrations, the poor would come out and beg for food from the more wealthy families. When the families gave them pastries called "soul cakes", they asked for the poor to pray for their relatives that had passed away.

Another possibility that may have grown into "Trick-Or-Treating" is the tradition of people leaving bowls of food in front of their homes. They did this to keep the ghosts that were wandering the earth from entering.

Dressing in costumes has a couple possible origins. European and Celtic people both felt winter was a frightening time. It was cold, it was darker, and the possibility of running out of food was great. When they reached the time when they thought the dead returned, they thought they might encounter these ghosts whenever they left their houses. The wearing of masks and costumes grew from these people donning masks so the ghosts would not recognize them!

This holiday was brought to the US by Scotch and Irish immigrants in the 1800s. At that time, much of the "spookiness" of the holiday was removed and a sense of community and fun were added. Although scary themes are still the focus of many Halloween celebrations, that scariness is done for fun, not because of actual fear.

Halloween is currently the 2nd largest commercial holiday!

Why Do We Celebrate Halloween - The Spookiest Holiday Of The Year

Nicola always enjoys celebrating Halloween with her family. Visit her Halloween site for tips and information about Homemade Halloween Costumes at http://Homemade-Halloween-Costumes.Best-Halloween.com

This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and the live links are included intact. All rights reserved. Copyright Best-Halloween.com

Easy Halloween Games For Kids

Your Halloween celebration can include much more than just costumes and trick-or-treating. These easy Halloween games for kids will help you host the best Halloween party ever!

Find the Pumpkin Halloween Game

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Supplies:

• Ten pieces of white paper
• Five pieces of yellow paper
• Five pieces of orange paper
• A crayon
• Scissors

How to play this easy Halloween games for kids:

• Draw ten white pumpkins, five yellow pumpkins, and five orange pumpkins.
• Cut out all the pumpkins.
• Decorate each pumpkin with a funny face.
• Write the number 1 on the backs of the white pumpkins.
• Write the number 5 on the backs of the yellow pumpkins.
• Write the number 10 on the backs of the orange pumpkins.
• Have a grownup hide all of the pumpkins.
• You and your friends will try to find as many pumpkins as you can before the grownup says "Stop!"
• Players will add up the numbers on the pumpkins each of them found.
• The player with the most points wins!

Pass the Pumpkin

Easy Halloween Games For Kids

• Get everybody to sit in a circle.
• Provide a plastic pumpkin for children to pass around while the teacher beats on a drum or plays some music.
• The children should try and pass the pumpkin to the tempo of the music.
• Alternate between fast and slow.
• When the music stops the child who has the pumpkin stands and takes a bow.
• Continue playing this easy Halloween games for kids.

Pumpkin Golf

Object of this game: Hit the golf ball into a pumpkin.

Preparation:

• Carve out a pumpkin. Make the mouth extra large.
• Build a cardboard ramp about one to two feet side from the ground to the bottom of the pumpkin's mouth.
• You will probably need some support under the cardboard.
• Tape the ramp to the floor for stability.
• Mark a starting point a few feet from the start of the ramp. The older the kids, the farther away

Playing the Game:

• Each player gets to hit a golf ball three times.
• Each time the ball goes into the pumpkin, the player wins a piece of candy.

Easy Halloween Games For Kids

For 365 surefire ways to keep your kids entertained each day of the year, find more easy Halloween games for kids including party games, educational games, preschool games and games for every holiday at http://www.365KidsGames.com

Flickering, Sputtering, Fluttering Fire Lighting to Illuminate Your Halloween Decorations and House!

Haunted houses, burning buildings, and old time electrical lighting running off of a sputtering generator all have one thing in common: flickering and fluttering lights. If you've gone to Disney's Haunted Mansion or the Indiana Jones ride, you'll see this effect in action. There are pricey devices out there that you can use, but you can make a flickering power unit for around fifteen bucks.

Categories: Cool. Tricky Effect.
Skill level: Super Easy.
Time needed: 10 minutes
Expense: -

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"Fluttering Sputtering Firey Light Flicker-er"

Flickering, Sputtering, Fluttering Fire Lighting to Illuminate Your Halloween Decorations and House!

Ingredients:

1) c7 "flicker flame" chandelier or candelabra bulb
2) c7 nightlight socket
3) 3 extension cords
4) photo-sensor outlet
5) Enclosure (like a shoebox)

The photo-sensor turns on the power to its outlet whenever there is no light hitting the sensor. (These devices are usually used to turn lights on after dark.) If we use the flicker/chandelier bulb near the sensor and put this combination in a light-tight box, the fluttering chandelier bulb will make anything pulled into the photsensor also flutter. That's all there is to it. You will need to experiment with the distance between the photo-sensor and the chandelier bulb.

A) Plug the photo-sensor into extension cord 1.

B) Screw the c7 chandelier bulb into the nightlight socket.

C) Plug the nightlight unit into the OTHER extension cord.

D) Plug both cords into a power supply (the 110v wall outlet.) 

E) Plug a third extension cord INTO the photo-sensor unit. This will be the cord that you plug the lights you wish to flicker into. Let's call this the FLICKER CORD.

F) Run the extension cords with the devices into an enclosure like a shoe box. The enclosure must be light-tight. If you will be placing this "controller" outside, make sure the box is weather-proof. We recommend keeping this controller indoors and simply running an extension cord out to your outdoor lights.  

G) Plug at least one light into the extension cord (FLICKER CORD) which is plugged into the sensor outlet so that you can adjust the flicker unit. 

H) In a relatively dark room, experiment with the distance needed between the photo-sensor and the chandelier flicker bulb.  Tape each down when optimum flickering is reached. Adjusting the distance will change how much or how little the lights stay on or off.

I) Tape down the lid on the enclosure and you're ready to rock!

This delivers a lighting trick that is used in almost every movie fire you've ever seen. The actors are lit with fluttering orange light. (Using orange color spot or flood lamps in the flicker device are common.) "Faulty" or sputtering electrical lighting is also created by running the lights into this sort of flicker device. Remember the the photo-sensor you are using can supply as MAXIMUM of 300 watts of power. If you need more juice, just make more units!

Flickering, Sputtering, Fluttering Fire Lighting to Illuminate Your Halloween Decorations and House!

Bill Lae is an award-winning visual effects artist and Halloween Haunter. As one of Hollywood's effects artists, Bill worked for all the networks using his magic touch on TV's top shows including The X-Files, Buffy, & The Outer Limits. He created BigScreamTV http://www.BigScreamTV.com a series of DVDs anyone can use to create in-home Halloween effects with a TV. He also shot a how-to DVD called X-Treme Haunted House Make-Over where he shows folks how to haunt the house for little cost. His love for Halloween started long before he came to LA. As a child he made haunted houses in his parents' basement. In LA, he began mixing easy-to-use technology (DVD players, computers, printers, lights) with other household items to "trick out" his own house every Halloween. At last count, he had 700 trick-or-treaters.

"It's my favorite holiday," Bill says. "I especially love amazing the hardened, media-savvy, teen-age critics. And it truly is the one time when everyone has the opportunity to give unconditionally-giving candy to strangers!" For more Halloween Projects: http://www.booityourself.com

Halloween Outdoor Decorations

A lot of people enjoy going to Halloween parties. During this time of the year, we get to dress up and wear weird costumes that we do not usually wear everyday. Halloween decorations such as spider webs, tombstones, ghoulish figures, pumpkins and bats are scattered inside and outside our houses, so as to create a really spooky atmosphere.

If you are thinking of transforming your house into a haunted house this October 31st, you might want to know some tips on how to successfully do the job. Everything should not be too expensive. As long as you know how and where to look for resources and materials, your pockets would remain safe and secure.

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Let me start by suggesting a few Halloween outdoor decorations. If you have a lawn or a front yard, it is best to put up at least a couple of tombstones to welcome your guests. You could use one of those big boxes you can get from grocery stores or used cardboard pieces from your children's school projects the previous years. You could then use crayons or pens to write the epitaph and make up the deceased's personal information.

Halloween Outdoor Decorations

Next, place big and small pumpkins all over your porch and yard. Using spray paint, you could draw eyes and creepy mouths on the pumpkins. You could also draw other styles of intricate patterns. If you have carved pumpkins available, you could light up a candle and put it inside to give off a spooky-looking light.

Get some pieces of old cloth and paper bags. You could create scarecrows, ghost figures and other supernatural creatures from these materials. You could look for a pattern online so that you would have a guide on how to cut and assemble these props. When you are done, you could hand them from the ceiling or the tree branches outside.

Finally, do not forget the lights. You could use your old Christmas lights to illuminate your porch and yard. You might have stored them in the attic or in the basement, so start looking for them now. These lights would be best kept in the bushes to make it appear like they are the glaring red eyes of the devil or some witch looking for her next victim.

Halloween outdoor decorations play a big role in making your Halloween a scary and frightening one. Do not forget to learn from these tips and use them for your next Halloween plans! 

Halloween Outdoor Decorations

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Halloween Decorations - How to Set Your Dinner Table

You've sent out the invites for a fun-filled Halloween dinner. You've got fun, dark and scary décor throughout your house. Now it's time to go all out with the table setting. This is the one table setting that should entertain, scare and make the meal memorable. A typical tabletop with seasonal pumpkins and gourds just won't do. No, for this tabletop you need to bring a little fright to the night.

Let's start with the beverages and how to serve them. Dry ice is your friend on Halloween. Almost regardless of what you are serving it can be poured into a low bowl with dry ice on the bottom. The dry ice will keep things cold but it will also provide a nice bit of fog flowing over your table. For the bowl, try and find something dark, ceramic and mysterious. People should wonder what the heck they are about to drink. Be sure and provide a ladle in the bowl for serving.

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Half the battle for setting the mood is the lighting and for Halloween the darker the better. Colored light bulbs or colored lamp shades work well. Use a table lamp or two placed on your dining table and either deeply dim or turn off any ceiling lights. Remember, you never saw recessed cans in a horror movie. Using just candles can also be very effective. Deep purple and brown hues will complement the scary mood.

Halloween Decorations - How to Set Your Dinner Table

For mood music, be sure to get some old classic thriller songs with lots of pipe organs and dramatic sounds. If you want to have some real fun, attach a player under your table and have it play some screams, groans, cats fighting, wind rustling trees or wolves howling. Your guests will be surprised when they hear those strange noises coming from their dinner table.

Now let's get creative with the linens. A black or dark brown or deep purple tablecloth is fine but how about some old burlap sacks strewn on the table for more of a warehouse look? If you have an old sailboat sail try draping it over your table. Or even an old canvas tarp will do the trick. Whatever you use, the darker, older and dirtier it is the better.

The centerpiece is where you can tie together the party theme with the dinner table and make the evening really pop. This is where you want to do something dramatic. Perhaps a dead alien on the table? How about a small coffin with a vampire inside? How about a dead werewolf with a wooden stake in his heart on the table? Use your imagination and put lots of detail into it. If it is done well people will talk about it for years. Go ahead and let your creepy side out.

Halloween Decorations - How to Set Your Dinner Table

Sheila writes frequently on eco-friendly and artisan-made home décor at StylishHome.com where you can shop for terrific dinnerware from Bernardaud and décor and houseware items from Homedics.