- traditions of helloween....- traditions of helloween....

Halloween in North America
Halloween has become a major folk holiday in the US and Canada. "Trick or Treaters" go from door to door and collect candies, apples and other goodies. Hallmark Cards reports that 65% of Americans will decorate their homes and offices for Halloween. This percentage is exceeded only by Christmas.

Some interesting facts about the celebration of Halloween:

Halloween is the holiday when the most candy is sold; it is second only to Christmas in total sales. North Americans spend over $20 million on Halloween candies yearly. 12
Halloween is the third-largest party occasion next to Christmas and New Year's Eve.
Halloween is the Number 1 season for selling humorous greeting cards. In North America, some 25 million cards are sold annually. 12
Rumors circulated some years ago that some evil people were distributing adulterated food to children: poison mixed with candy; razor blades and pins in apples. Although these rumors have generally been shown to be hoaxes, the fear persists. Many adults now only give out pre-packaged food; many parents check their children's collection and discard anything that could possibly have been adulterated.
For many decades, the United Nations Children's' Fund (UNICEF) has distributed boxes to children so that they can collect money at Halloween time. During the 1950's, a few US public schools banned the UNICEF boxes, over suspicions that it might be a Communist plot.
The town of Hancock, MD has refused for more than 20 years to declare a specific date for Halloween. Their rationale is that if they set a particular date and a child gets hurt during the trick-or-treating, then the town might be liable for damages.
The school board of Hillsborough NJ bans all religious celebrations in its schools. So, they have replaced Halloween with a "Fall Festival". St. Valentine's day has become "Special Person Day."
In many jurisdictions, Halloween is held on OCT-30 when OCT-31 falls on a Sunday. This is to avoid direct conflict between Halloween celebrations and church services.
Some Evangelical Christian churches offer alternative methods of celebrating Halloween: Some urge their members to distribute Bible tracts along with or instead of candy treats.
Light the Night is an Evangelical Christian outreach in which trick-or-treaters are invited into a home where they watch a puppet show. The theme is the Gospel, interpreted from a conservative Christian perspective. The sponsors note that Halloween night is "an excellent opportunity to take back ground in which the enemy has controlled for too long." (The webmaster clarified that the "enemy" here is Satan) They say that by "...allowing our 'light' to shine on a very dark night, it is a very simple way to combat that darkness with the love of Christ." 10 As of mid-2002-OCT, the program has sold "Light the Night" kits to people in 146 cities in 25 states.
Others have "Trunk or Treat" parties in which members park their cars in the church parking lot, distribute treats from the trunks of their cars and invite the children into the church hall for a Christian party.
Other congregations hold parties for their families. Costumes are allowed, but expected to be appropriate for a Christian environment. Twin Lakes Church in Aptos, CA, has been offering a Family Fun-Fest since the early 1990s. Each year they expect 5 to 10 thousand visitors who consume close to a half-ton of candy. 11