Happy Halloween

It irks me a little when people say they don't celebrate Halloween because it's "against their religion" or "they don't worship the devil." It's fine if you don't like Halloween or don't feel like celebrating it, but these claims people make show that people don't really know what Halloween is and/or was.
There's a few origins of Halloween. Most of them are of Celtic or Western European heritage. One story is that it is the "end of the light," meaning the days are now getting shorter and the nights longer. Our ancestors believed that spirits were able to come forth during this period, both good and bad. The good were paid respects, whereas the bad were warded off. This is where the costumes come in. They are not to worship the devil or anything evil...they were used to try to scare the evil away.
Nowadays, we don't have any "evil" to scare away (at least we hope not!). It's more for fun than anything. And fun is to be had by all! The kids enjoy it because they play dress-up and get candy. I don't know about any other adults, but I enjoy it because I get to see all the kids having so much fun! This was my first "real" Halloween as an adult, meaning I got a TON of trick-or-treaters tonight! I saw the Mario Brothers, fairies, princesses, the puppet from Saw, the Hulk, Woody from Toy Story, cheerleaders, and so much more! It was so great! I kinda can't wait until next year...I'll definitely dress up the outside of the house a little more (I know, Sam Lambert, you were against spending so much money on the decorations!). I wouldn't do too much, though. Just some homemade ghosts in the trees, a pumpkin/Jack-o-lantern or two, maybe some cobwebs. We'll see. I have a whole year to think about it!

I took the following pictures from inside my house. Sorry they're a little dark. I didn't want to turn on the flash because 1) it would have reflected on the window and 2) I didn't want to freak people out with random flashes coming from our house!