Everything you need to know about Halloween What comes to your mind, when I say Halloween?

Spooks, ghosts, witches, pumpkins, candy, trick o treating, black cats etc, or a silly commercialized, way to sell more Candy then god, and prankster gangs roaming the street, getting ready to egg your car all up? Well personally the second thing has never happened to mine, but I have heard many stories up people s cars that have been! "ut it makes you think how it got to all this! Halloween is on #ctober $%st, the last day o& the Celtic calendar! It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead! Halloween was re&erred to as 'll Hallows Eve and dates back to ())) years ago! 'll Hallows Eve is the evening be&ore 'll Saints *ay, which was created by Christians to convert pagans, and is celebrated on +ovember %st! ,he Catholic church honored saints on this designated day!
Different cultures view Halloween somewhat differently but traditional Halloween practices remain the same. Halloween culture can be traced back to the Druids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe. oots lay in the feast of !amhain, which was annually on "ctober #$st to honor the dead. !amhain si%nifies &summers end& or November. !amhain was a harvest festival with hu%e sacred bonfires, markin% the end of the Celtic year and be%innin% of a new one. 'any of the practices involved in this celebration were fed on superstition. (he custom of leavin% a platter of bread or milk out , was do to the villa%ers knew not all spirits were friendly, so they left the treats out pacify the spirit to ensure the crops of the ne)t year would be plenty. *nd we cant for %et the %ood ol +ack o lantern its ori%ins tell that , * miserable man named +ack, tricked the devil. -nable to enter heaven or hell after his death, he was destined to roam the earth listlessly. +ack placed a piece of coal into a carved.out turnip and used it as a lantern to keep the evil spirits away. (oday, pumpkins /which are easier to cut0 are carved into 1ack.o. lanterns, lit and placed outside of doorways for the same purpose. But where do Cats fit in 22 3ell do to I happen to have two cats of my own, I had to research this furry familiar and its roots, to this chilly holiday, and ironically my cats have Halloween colors, black, oran%e and white, so I always tease them that they are halloween cats. Black cats have lon% been believed to be a supernatural omen since the witch hunts of the middle a%es when cats were thou%ht to be connected to evil. !ince then, it is considered bad luck if a black cat crosses your path. But some be% to differ,

*ll cats /includin% the black cats0 were held in hi%h re%ard by the E%yptians and protected by law from in1ury or death. (he cat was treated as a %od like fi%ure and when the pet died it was mourned by the whole family, embalmed in %reat fashion, wrapped in the finest of cotton and buried in a mummy tomb. !ometimes cats were buried with their owners who had passed before. *rchaeolo%ists have du% up complete cat cemeteries.

Many people believe black cats bring good fortune and if that black cat has one white hair and the person can pluck it out without being scratched will find wealth, good luck and love. If there was a black cat in a home then the young women would have no lack of lovers. In the English Midlands a black cat given as a wedding gift brought good luck to the bride. A cat was often kept in a theater as a lucky mascot and if an actor dared to kick it there would be disaster. In Normandy a tortoiseshell cat for tells death by accident.

Also it is proven that in animal shelters Black cats are the least adopted animal due to all these superstitions, so if you really love animals, and have a knack for alloween, make sure you adopt a lil black kitty, and don!t forget to spay and newter it, if you don!t want any other lil kitties running around, cause the fact is in Ma"atlan there are too many cats and dogs in the streets due to ignorance, and bad education, where they are left in a field sumwhere, or let to breed with whoever, and so to help the awareness of over population, don!t be afraid to spread the word, and you can always donate to Amigos de los Animales here in Ma", they really need it. And last but not least some cute, #orky, and spooky alloween trivia for all those alloween geeks out there.

"ran%e and black are Halloween colors because oran%e is associated with the 4all harvest and black is associated with darkness and death. 5umpkins also come in white, blue and %reen. 6reat for uni7ue monster carvin%s8 Halloween was brou%ht to North *merica by immi%rants from Europe who would celebrate the harvest around a bonfire, share %host stories, sin%, dance and tell fortunes. (ootsie olls were the first wrapped penny candy in *merica.

Halloween candy sales avera%e about 9 billion dollars annually in the -nited !tates. Chocolate candy bars top the list as the most popular candy for trick.or.treaters with !nickers :$. Halloween is the 9nd most commercially successful holiday, with Christmas bein% the first. Bobbin% for apples is thou%ht to have ori%inated from the roman harvest festival that honors 5amona, the %oddess of fruit trees. Black cats were once believed to be witch;s familiars who protected their powers. In $<=9, the Count Dracula !ociety was founded. (o this day, there are vampire clubs and societies with people claimin% to be real vampires.

(here really are so.called vampire bats, but they;re not from (ransylvania. (hey live in Central and !outh *merica and feed on the blood of cattle, horses and birds. If you see a spider on Halloween, it is the spirit of a loved on watchin% over you. 3orldwide, bats are vital natural enemies of ni%ht.flyin% insects. (he common little brown bat of North *merica has the lon%est life span for a mammal it;s si>e, with a life span avera%in% #9 years. In about $ in ? autopsies, a ma1or disease is discovered that was previously undetected. ;Halloween& was made in only 9$ days in $<@A on a very limited bud%et. (he movie was shot in the !prin% and used fake autumn leaves 3hile the settin% for the story is in Illinois, the license plates on the vehicles have California plates.

!o hope all you folks en1oy this Holiday season, and the weather cools down soon, and have a spooky, fun, or chocolate Halloween8 Biblio%raphy www.halloween.website.com B they have some really neat recipes to8 www.wiki.answers.com B omens associated with cats Halloween history