Each festival has a story involving it and such stories give raise to several traditions. It cannot be told with assurance that all the stories are true but the quirky traditions they start make our daily life more bearable. Halloween is one of the most anticipated festivals for the Christians. It is celebrated on the 31st of October each year. Theme parties are organized and both adults and children dress up like witches and monsters. Children go from one house to another asking for trick or treat. Every house is decorated with carved pumpkins and light is put inside it.
The pumpkins are made to look like a face. Sometimes it is a smiling face and sometimes it is the face of a ghoulish spirit. Halloween is basically an Irish, Celtic festival. It signified the end of summer and the end of a year. The night of 31st October is believed to be the only night when the spirits of the deceased persons could enter the body of someone alive. To fend themselves against the spirits, people dressed as the devil and monsters and also kept the light of their house turned off.
There is a story that once the devil tried to take the soul of a drunkard and regular brawler called Stingy Jack. Jack was smarter than the devil and tricked him twice. Once Jack tricked him, the devil turned himself into a coin and another time he locked him on a tree. After his death Stingy Jack was refused a place in the heaven for his lifelong malpractices and the doors of hell were also not open for him. The devil gave him a burning piece of coal and Jack put it in a turnip and walked along to find a shelter. To save themselves from Stingy Jack, people carve the pumpkin, which is more easily available than turnip.
