From: utzoo!utcsrgv!jrc
Newsgroups: net.trivia
Title: Re: trick-or-treat
Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.649
Posted: Wed Nov  3 11:05:29 1982
Received: Wed Nov  3 11:32:11 1982
References: azure.1409 duke.2725


Re Bruce Wright's notes on Hallowe'en:

The dressing up as monsters also came from Druidian tradition.
The god of the Underworld was supposed to let the dead souls
free to roam the Earth on Hallowe'en, and dressing up as scary
monsters was supposed to scare the dead away.  When the Christian
era hit Britain, the timing of All Saints Day so close to their
traditional freeing of the dead souls confused the common people
sufficiently that they couldn't tell the difference.  This led to
the modern concept of the Druidian evening with the Christian 
name.  That name?  Hallowe'n, of course, which comes from the
old name "All Hallow's Eve", the night before All Saints Day,
also known as "Hallow Even", shortened to Hallowe'en.

Jim Cordy