It is believed that the birthplace of Halloween is in Ireland and it is very popular holiday there. As in the days of Celts, in some areas people lit bone fires. The children choose costumes to spend the evening “trick-or-treating” in their neighborhoods. Many people attend parties with their friends. Usually they play games. The most popular is “snap-apple”. An apple is tied on a string to a tree and players attempt to bite it without using their hands. For the children parents arrange treasure hunts or arrange parties with sweets . The traditional food eaten on Halloween in Ireland is called “barnbrack.”. It is a type of fruit cake inside which is baked a muslin-wraped treat. It can foretell the future for the person who finds it.
In Austria people leave water, bread and a lighted lamp on Halloween night because they believed that the dead souls come back to earth on that night. Austrians consider the night also with strong cosmic energies.
In Belgium, on Halloween night people light candles in memory of their dead relatives. They also believe that if a black cat crosses theirs path or enters their home brings bad luck.
In Czechoslovakia on Halloween people put a chair for each live family member and a chair for the soul of their dead relatives. In Germany people put away the knives on Halloween night because they do not want to harm the returning spirits. Halloween is known as “Alla Helgons Dag” in Sweden. They celebrate it from October 31 till November 6.
In England people make “punkies” using big beetroots and carve them of their choice. The children carry them through the streets and sing songs. They knock on the doors of their neighbors and ask for money .In some areas people placed turnip lanterns on gateposts to protect their homes from the spirits of the dead people. In other places they toss vegetables, stones and stones into a bone fire to frighten the spirits. People used these symbolic as fortune-telling tools. But in our days the American “trick or treat” custom is very popular and well accepted. The custom of going door to door isn’t very popular to the old generation and still they do not know why they have been asked for sweets.