This week, I am here to talk about the second most favourite “holiday” (and my absolute favourite) in North America — Halloween.

Halloween can also be called the Christian feast of Hallowmas, Allhallows, or All Saints day. Halloween is connected all the way back to the ancient druids. The Druids believed that on this evening the lord of the dead called upon hosts for evil spirits. The Druids would then light fires on Halloween night for the purpose of warding off these evil spirits.

The ancient Celts believed that Halloween was the last evening of the year, and people of this time would examine portents for the future. The Celts also believed that on this night the spirits of the dead revisited their homes.

When the Romans conquered Britain they added Halloween to the Roman harvest festival on November first. The Celtic tradition of lighting fires on Halloween has survived until modern times (in Scotland and Wales) and even the concept of ghosts and witches connected to Halloween is still common. Even the Roman harvest festival traditions are still used today, such as bobbing for apples carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns.

The idea of wearing costumes and doing more of the ‘modern' activities came about during the twentieth century. The idea of wearing scary costumes or masks came from the Celtics, who wore them to scare away food scavengers and hunters, but has turned into what is widely known today as wearing Halloween costumes. (Popular costumes include ghosts, witches, vampires and other things associated with Halloween.) And the idea of leaving food behind, or feeding the young ones turned into ‘trick-or-treating.'

Along with Halloween, comes, of course, the Urban Legends that we love and thrive on. I researched a few of them to find out if they were true or just a load of pig pooh. For this, I turned to one of my favorite e-sources, www.about.com and found an excellent article from Salon Magazine that pretty much summed up the whole Urban Legends idea. (If you ever want to read about ANY Urban Legend, got to www.about.com and enter “urban legend” and you can spend hours engrossed in all the information they have there: it's also a great site for research for projects!)

The author of the article, Jill Wolfson, outlines some of the more well-known warnings, such as;

Don't eat apples. They hide razor blades.

Don't eat candy until we take it to the nearest emergency room to have it X-rayed. See above.

Don't eat anything that isn't factory-sealed. It is likely to contain poisons, toxins or hallucinogens.

Don't eat anything homemade, sealed or otherwise. See above.

Don't ring the doorbell of anyone you don't know personally. A pervert might answer.

Don't get close to groups of teenagers. They capture children, mummify them in toilet paper and set them on fire.

Don't set foot inside anyone's front door. This is the night Satan worshippers have been waiting for.

Don't move from your parents' line of sight for a second. Your face will wind up on a milk carton.

Don't cross any streets. You'll get hit by a runaway vehicle driven by aforementioned teenagers.

Don't run. You will trip over your costume.

But despite the laundry list of bad deeds that may happen to little ghosts and goblins, there is no evidence of any children actually being injured by their Halloween candy.

Wolfman interviewed Joel Best, a sociologist from the University of Delaware, who claims to be “the world's leading expert on Halloween crime.” He said in her article, “I haven't been able to find any evidence that a kid has ever been killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat received while trick-or-treating,” he says. “I can't say that it has never happened, but to say that it happens a lot, that it happens all the time, that it justifies all the worrying and warnings? That's overblown. There's just no evidence.”

So, I guess it is up to you to decide whether an urban legend is true or not —- the stories get wilder and wilder as the years go on and the arguments about its history are well known to be argued as well.

Bottom line: have a great and safe time but don't dress up as Dubya Bush: you're just asking to be assassinated.

Janet is occasionally a second year student in the hospitality department on an extended sick leave. She is an E-Bay addict and reads too damn much, or so her parents say as she always beats them at Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy, a nightly Pole ritual now that she is living at home. Mom is now cleaning the litter box and her father managed to lose her Driver's license, OHIP card, Medic Alert Card, CAA card and her car keys all in one day —- she thinks that HE should be on litter duty. She can be reached at djembejanet@hotmail.com