Scene: Hallowe’en, a Scottish term which is a contraction of All Hallows’ Eve, from about 1745. A Christianized feast influenced by the Celtic harvest festival of Samhain. Folklorists have also detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia.

Dressing up in costumes and going “guising” was prevalent in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween by the late 19th century. The first mass-produced Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s when trick-or treating was becoming popular in the United States. In 1962, Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s song Monster Mash released. The scene was rockin’,
it was a graveyard smash! Happy Halloween!