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The ancient Greeks believed that each person had a spirit that attended his or her birth, and kept watch. The candles were a response to the evil spirits. They showed up to communicate with the gods. A light, in the darkness.

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The ancient Greeks believed that each person had a spirit that attended his or her birth, and kept watch. The candles were a response to the evil spirits. They showed up to communicate with the gods. A light, in the darkness.

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http://www.pamf.org/preteen/share/celebrations/comingofage.html

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Preteens Coming of Age & Birthday Celebrations | Info from PAMF

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It's that time of year again, the time when everyone is celebrating...you! It's your birthday, and it's time to celebrate.

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Some people don't decorate for Halloween, because they just don't have the Halloween spirit. This could be a downside for people going trick or treating.

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Some people don't decorate for Halloween, because they just don't have the Halloween spirit. This could be a downside for people going trick or treating.

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Now I know that it is still rather early in the month but I can't help but notice that very few people have even bothered putting up any Fall/Halloween decorations.
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.390372-Does-anyone-decorate-for-Halloween-anymore

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The Escapist : Forums : Off-topic Discussion : Does anyone decorate for Halloween anymore?

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The mouthpiece of the gaming generation, The Escapist aims to capture and celebrate the contemporary video gaming lifestyle and the diverse global video game culture by way of in-depth features, thought provoking articles and relevant columns authored by leading video game authorities, as well as cutting-edge video shorts, engaging forums and robust social media elements that incorporate the video gaming experience.

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Some people think houses are too scary on Halloween, so they don't like doing trick or treating . 

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Some people think houses are too scary on Halloween, so they don't like doing trick or treating . 

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Be sure that it’s scariness you’re talking about and not taste. If your neighbors decorate with half-buried zombies and you dot-glitter pumpkins around the yard.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/sc-fam-social-graces-halloween-decorations-1010-story.html

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Be sure that it's scariness you're talking about and not taste. If your neighbors decorate with half-buried zombies and you dot-glitter pumpkins around the yard, this is an agree-to-disagree issue.

But if the giant rats and half-chewed limbs are seriously frightening your children, this is something you can talk about.

Face to face, ask if there's any way they can tone it down for your little ones. Ask if the kids can visit in the daytime to see up close how fake everything is. Or suggest the scariest pieces be staged later in the month.

There are two things to remember. First, the most creepy Halloween displays are often created by people who work really hard, sometimes for months, putting together that eerie lighting and those red-eyed gremlins. It may not be your cup of tea, but think of those yards as having as much passion poured into them as happy holiday tableau.

Second, remember that Halloween is the one night we can wrap our arms around what frightens us, control it and, most of all, have fun with it.
- Lesley Bannatyne, author of "Halloween Nation: Behind the Scenes of America's Fright Night"
There is such a thing as too scary: It's gore. Seeing a prop hanging from trees is going too far with little kids trick-or-treating. The blood is what freaks kids out. Inflatable props are better, as are the basics like skeletons, witches and ghosts.

I would recommend never doing anything gory out front, at least not early. Kids have nightmares from that.

If you put out a corpse, put it out later for the older kids, after 9 o'clock; little kids are done trick-or-treating by 6 o'clock. Bury or cover gory stuff, and then uncover for the older crowds.

Your neighbors can still have it both ways, but they have to use judgment. You don't want to scare little kids - that's not the point of Halloween.
- Joe Persampiere, president of hauntedprops.com Social Graces is a weekly series asking two experts for advice on awkward situations. chrjohnson@tronc.com Twitter @christenadot_ 20 unique Halloween decorations " 15 Spooky things to do with the kids " Halloween makeup inspirations "

Fall is here, and the cooler temps are pushing the parties indoors. If you're worried that your next shindig won't live up to summer's rooftop fun, these over-the-top rentals, from animals to live painting, are sure to keep your guests talking way after the bash ends.

Mural mural on the wall, who is the fairest city of them all? Chicago is a world-renowned art locale, but if you think our talent is limited to museum walls, think again. We've rounded some of the best, brightest and most brilliant murals around town. Locations are included, but due to the nature of the beast, we can't guarantee all are still in existence.

Have a mural you want to show off? Send your photo to rstevenson@chicagotribune.com, and we'll add it to the gallery.

(Christen A. Johnson)

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What to say if neighbors' Halloween decorations are too scary

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Be sure that it's scariness you're talking about and not taste. If your neighbors decorate with half-buried zombies and you dot-glitter pumpkins around the yard, this is an agree-to-disagree issue. But if the giant rats and half-chewed limbs are seriously frightening your children, this is something you can talk about.

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Halloween ,"The Day of The Dead", is the day where kid s walk around to other houses, collecting candy for wearing costumes 

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Halloween ,"The Day of The Dead", is the day where kid s walk around to other houses, collecting candy for wearing costumes 

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the night of October 31, the eve of All Saints' Day, commonly celebrated by children who dress in costume and solicit candy or other treats door-to-door.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Halloween

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October 31 observed especially with dressing up in disguise, trick-or-treating, and displaying jack-o'-lanterns during the evening; the night of October 31 when children dress up as ghosts, witches, monsters, etc., and go to houses to ask for candy... See the full definition

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Halloween is not always an important day for people.Some people do not celebrate Halloween,but a birthday is a special day for everyone.Yeah you get candy, but it is not as an important day as your birthday. 

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Halloween is not always an important day for people.Some people do not celebrate Halloween,but a birthday is a special day for everyone.Yeah you get candy, but it is not as an important day as your birthday. 

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https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween

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When Is Halloween 2023?

Halloween is celebrated each year on October 31. Halloween 2023 will take place on Tuesday, October 31.

Ancient History of Halloween

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.

This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes.

When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

Did you know? One quarter of all the candy sold annually in the U.S. is purchased for Halloween.

By A.D. 43, the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the 400 years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

All Saints' Day

On May 13, A.D. 609, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.

By the 9th century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted older Celtic rites. In A.D. 1000, the church made November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It's widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, church-sanctioned holiday.

All Souls' Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints' Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

How Did Halloween Start in America?

The celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies.

As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance and sing.

Did you know? More people are buying costumes for their pets. Americans spent nearly $500 million on costumes for their pets in 2021-more than double what they spent in 2010.

Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the 19th century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing the Irish Potato Famine, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally.

History of Trick-or-Treating

Borrowing from European traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes.

Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

Halloween Parties

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide Halloween parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague some celebrations in many communities during this time.

By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated.

Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats.

Thus, a new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday after Christmas.

Halloween Movies

Speaking of commercial success, scary Halloween movies have a long history of being box office hits. Classic Halloween movies include the "Halloween" franchise, based on the 1978 original film directed by John Carpenter and starring Donald Pleasance, Nick Castle, Jamie Lee Curtis and Tony Moran. In "Halloween," a young boy named Michael Myers murders his 17-year-old sister and is committed to jail, only to escape as a teen on Halloween night and seek out his old home, and a new target. A direct sequel to the original "Halloween" was released in 2018, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Nick Castle. A sequel to that, "Halloween Kills," was released in 2021; and a sequel to that, "Halloween Ends," was released in 2022.

Considered a classic horror film down to its spooky soundtrack, "Halloween" inspired other iconic "slasher films" like "Scream," "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13." More family-friendly Halloween movies include "Hocus Pocus," "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Beetlejuice" and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown."

All Souls Day and Soul Cakes

The American Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling," was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry.

On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.

On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Black Cats and Ghosts on Halloween

Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.

Today's Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into black cats.

We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred (it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe). And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

Halloween Matchmaking and Lesser-Known Rituals

But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today's trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead.

In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday-with luck, by next Halloween-be married. In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it.

In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl's future husband. (In some versions of this legend, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.)

Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband.

Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands' initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands' faces.

Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry. At others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.

Of course, whether we're asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the goodwill of the very same "spirits" whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly.

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Halloween: Origins, Meaning & Traditions

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Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain and is now a worldwide event. Learn more about Halloween's origins, traditions, interesting facts, scary movies and more.

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When having a birthday, kids feel happy because everyone is giving gifts , and it's basically a day all about you. You can have fun, and hang out with your family as well.

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When having a birthday, kids feel happy because everyone is giving gifts , and it's basically a day all about you. You can have fun, and hang out with your family as well.

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Everyone deserves to be treated specially on his or her birthday. Many families have traditions for birthday celebrations
http://www.pamf.org/preteen/share/celebrations/comingofage.html

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Preteens Coming of Age & Birthday Celebrations | Info from PAMF

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It's that time of year again, the time when everyone is celebrating...you! It's your birthday, and it's time to celebrate.

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A birthday is also a day where you parents can celebrate as well. A birthday means that your parents have done a good job taking care of you, and helping you live.

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A birthday is also a day where you parents can celebrate as well. A birthday means that your parents have done a good job taking care of you, and helping you live.

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Sometimes it is easy to forget that our parents spend a tremendous amount of time taking care of us and planning rituals and experiences for us, especially around special occasions, like birthdays
http://www.pamf.org/preteen/share/celebrations/birthday.html

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Preteens Planning a Birthday Party for Your Parents

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Sometimes it is easy to forget that our parents spend a tremendous amount of time taking care of us and planning rituals and experiences for us, especially around special occasions, like birthdays. However, it is very easy to show your parents that you appreciate them. For example, give them a low-impact birthday party!

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A birthday is very important for you and your family members because you are the most important thing to your parents , and they care for you every day of the year.

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A birthday is very important for you and your family members because you are the most important thing to your parents , and they care for you every day of the year.

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It has been said that a  birthday is just another day, why even celebrate it? On the contrary, a birthday signifies  your beginning and the joy of life. Every human on earth has been given a chance to fulfill their own unique mission. A birthday is an important and momentous occasion not be be understated
https://abmcollege.com/the-importance-of-celebrating-birthdays/

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It has been said that a birthday is just another day, why even celebrate it? On the contrary, a birthday signifies your beginning and the joy of life. Every human on earth has been given a chance to fulfill their own unique mission. A birthday is an important and momentous occasion not be be understated. It is a time to celebrate, reflect and give thanks.

At ABM College we recognize the importance of birthdays and want to celebrate with you! For the first time ABM College will be having "Birthday Celebrations" on March 13. This is ABM's inaugural event so we will be celebrating students with birthdays January, February and March. These celebrations will take place in the college cafeteria. Morning classes 10AM-10:30AM and Evening/Weekend Classes 7PM-7:30PM. EVERYONE is welcome to stop by for some cake! There will be prizes for those that have birthdays during these months. So come down on Friday March 13th and let's celebrate your birthday together!

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The Importance of Celebrating Birthdays ABM College

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It has been said that a birthday is just another day, why even celebrate it? On the contrary, a birthday signifies your beginning and the joy of life. Every human on earth has been given a chance to fulfill their ... Read More

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That is why I think Birthday's are better than Halloween.Simply because  birthdays are very important for everyone, but some people don't celebrate Halloween. 

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That is why I think Birthday's are better than Halloween.Simply because  birthdays are very important for everyone, but some people don't celebrate Halloween. 

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A Birthday is the day that you or someone else celebrates them being born .

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A Birthday is the day that you or someone else celebrates them being born .

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the day when someone was born or the anniversary of that day. : the day when something began.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/birthday

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Example Sentences

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'birthday.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2

The first known use of birthday was in the 14th century

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These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'birthday.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.