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<p><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px;">Halloween is a holiday combining ideas of traditional harvest celebrations with more modern and social customs such as costume wearing, trick-or-treating</span><span style="color: #191919; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px;">, and spooky decorations based on the changing of the seasons, death, and the supernatural (like ghosts).</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px;"><span style="color: #191919; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px;">It is common to trace its roots back in time to a pagan festival of ancient Ireland known as </span><a style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 16.6666679382324px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #0099cc; text-decoration: underline; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial;" href="http://goireland.about.com/od/historyculture/qt/trad_samhain.htm" data-component="link" data-source="inlineLink" data-type="internalLink" data-ordinal="3">Samhain</a><span style="color: #191919; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px;"> (pronounced </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 16.6666679382324px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #191919; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial;">sow'-en</em><span style="color: #191919; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px;"> or </span><em style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 16.6666679382324px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #191919; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial;">sow'-een</em><span style="color: #191919; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px;">). The prehistoric (meaning before history was written down) observance is said to have marked the end of summer and the start of winter.  It was celebrated with feasting, bonfires, sacrificial offerings, and remembering people who had died.  T<span style="color: #191919; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 25px;">here was a belief that this was the time of year when the physical and supernatural worlds were closest and magical things could happen.</span></span></span></span></p>
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