Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving are more important, but Halloween is more pure fun. The day was originally a pagan holy day which the Church adopted and transformed. November is the Catholic feast day in which all of the "unknown" saints are honored.
On the day before All Saints' Day villages would hold a pageant in which some of the villagers would dress as demons and "terrorize" the townspeople. Then others dressed as the Saints would arrive and "deliver" the village by chasing away the evil spirits, who would cower and grovel before them. Then they would eat and drink and dance and generally make merry.
This was to reinforce the fact that the power of God was greater than the power of the Devil and that the Saints in Heaven were watching out for them.
This is were the custom of dressing in costume came from. The bit about going door to door asking for treats came from the Celtic pagan belief that on this night the souls of the dead would return to earth and if you didn't leave them an offering to show your respect they would punish you.
I am a Christian, but not a Roman Catholic and my ancestry is Celtic, but I am not a pagan. This means that the day is just a chance to have a good time.
So enjoy!
Of course somebody always has to go too far.
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