Halloween, Allhalloween, or All Hallows Eve are all acceptable names for this holiday. A Western, Christian precursor to All Saints Day, this holiday has transformed beyond a day of reverence for the dead and has moved toward a celebration of other aspects of life. It fits in with the original intent of Allhallowtide, which revolves around the theme of using humor and ridicule to confront the power of death, but has moved beyond that. Today, Halloween is characterized by dressing up, trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, attending parties and haunted houses, and watching horror films or reading scary stories.
In many parts of the world, religious observance of All Hallow's Eve includes attending services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead. Many of the modern customs, like wearing costumes, may be attributed to past practices like "souling," in which criers dressed in black paraded the streets, ringing bells of mournful sounds and calling on people to remember lost souls. Superstition is also somewhat present on this day, and black cats and witches have become some of the symbols of Halloween festivities.
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