***BEWITCHED AND BEDAZZLED***

The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing. Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling, when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls' Day (November 2).
It originated in Ireland and Britain.
Halloween has Celtic origins.
In pre-Christian times, many people believed that spirits from the underworld and ghosts of dead people could visit the world of the living on the night of October 31. These spirits could harm the living or take them back to the underworld.
To avoid this, people started dressing up as ghosts and spirits if they left their homes on October 31. They hoped that this would confuse the ghosts and spirits.
Halloween was also a time, when spirits might give messages to people.
In some areas, it was traditional for unmarried girls to poor molten lead into water.
The shape that the lead took when it hardened was seen as a clue to the professions of their future husbands. Halloween traditions were brought to Canada by Irish and Scottish immigrants.
Halloween is now celebrated in a range of other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.
Reference http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/canada/halloween and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY HALLOWEEN