In Ireland, it is still not uncommon to light bonfires on Oct. 31, which were used by the Celts to scare away evil spirits. These same people dressed up in animal skins, starting the Halloween tradition of wearing costumes, Guthrie writes. The Celts also believed dead relatives could return to Earth as animals, in particular black cats.
He reports the tradition of Jack o’lanterns is a more recent addition to Halloween customs. The carving out a turnip or pumpkin, creating a frightening face and illuminating it with a candle placed inside can be traced back to an 18th century Irish folk tale.
  
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These days, family members and neighbors team up to hit the streets for trick-or-treating on Halloween night. The lucky ones get to stay behind and hand out candy and eat all of the Halloween treats laid out for the guests.
Web sites such as FamilyFeatures.com and food.thefuntimesguide.com offers plenty of recipes for fun snacks such as bloody eyeballs, BOO! Brownie pops and Halloween Goldfish Munch.
Cimi Saunier and her sister, Walteen Broussard, co-owners of Guidry’s Cake Shop in New Iberia, said they like to use the fall colors when decorating cakes around this time of the year.
Halloween is not one of their big holidays, but they have had requests for cakes with the fall colors in the decorations.
“Thanksgiving is one of the big holidays and then Christmas,” Saunier said. “Our red velvet cake really does well during that time.” for eternity, the devil takes pity on Jack and gives him a piece of coal. Jack places this inside a hollowed out turnip and uses it to light his way.
These days, family members and neighbors team up to hit the streets for trick-or-treating on Halloween night. The lucky ones get to stay behind and hand out candy and eat all of the Halloween treats laid out for the guests.
Web sites such as FamilyFeatures.com and food.thefuntimesguide.com offers plenty of recipes for fun snacks such as bloody eyeballs, BOO! Brownie pops and Halloween Goldfish Munch.
Cimi Saunier and her sister, Walteen Broussard, co-owners of Guidry’s Cake Shop in New Iberia, said they like to use the fall colors when decorating cakes around this time of the year.
Halloween is not one of their big holidays, but they have had requests for cakes with the fall colors in the decorations.
“Thanksgiving is one of the big holidays and then Christmas,” Saunier said. “Our red velvet cake really does well during that time.”
Halloween decorating tips
Halloween is one of the most ‘decoration friendly” holidays. From the new colors of fall, to traditional Halloween icons like jack-o-lanterns to new fads like “Halloween trees,” there's a lot of choices. Here are some suggestions for Halloween house decorating based on different motifs we all commonly see when people decorate their houses for Halloween.
• Go natural — Halloween is a centuries old holiday. Many of the holiday traditions involve nature. One way to decorate your home around this time of year is to embrace those nature-based decorations. This includes, of course, carving a jack-o-lantern (or several) and lighting it. It includes objects like cornstalks, haystacks and straw-filled scare crows. You can keep up the theme using natural autumn colors in your home like gold, orange and brown, and using candles with natural scents like cinnamon and vanilla.
• Go Great Pumpkin — As Charlie Brown specials remind us, Halloween is definitely a holiday for kids. Decorating with a kid-friendly theme is a popular option. Jack-o-lanterns are a mainstay, or try easier “paint it yourself” pumpkins. Pseudo-scary monster, witch, ghost or black cat cut outs join with children’s favorite cartoon characters ranging from SpongeBob to Disney for Halloween decorations. Filling the house with Halloween-themed decorations that kids can enjoy will make Halloween enjoyable for young children. Not as enjoyable as all that candy, but close. You can also use the crafts your kids will inevitably make in school, or get them to make some crafts of their own at home. .
• Go scary — You may want to decorate your home in a creepier manner. Go more trick than treat, in other words. There are plenty of ways to do this, too. Sites like Gore Galore offer everything from creepy dismembered plastic limbs and heads to skulls and gargoyle wall decorations or keep it simple with a few plastic spiders and leave them strategically around your house to scare the family.
• Get a Halloween Tree — If you think decorating trees is just for Christmas - well, you'd be right. However, it seems these days some people also like to decorate trees for Halloween. Of course there are many ways to create a Halloween tree. You can secure a many-forked branch into a pot of soil or break out the plastic Christmas tree centerpiece and use that. You can even cut down a real fur tree and bring it inside, just as you would for Christmas. To decorate the tree, use your imagination. Hang kids' crafts or old Halloween photos from black or orange yarn. Hang glo-sticks or twinkling white lights on the tree, adding a witch's hat on the top instead of an angel or star. Place pumpkins at the foot of the tree on a Halloween table covering. You could even use black and orange streamers if you wanted. Halloween is a great, fun, festive time. Use your imagination and make your home's décor part of the celebration.
Courtesy howtodothings.com
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