Halloween: it's not an American holiday

 As Halloween gets bigger and bigger in the UK, many individuals complain about how this "American holiday" is taking over. While a reluctance to open the door to strange children and hand out sweets is somewhat understandable, Halloween itself has ancient roots in Celtic culture, although some of the modern day trappings of the holiday do come from the land across the pond.

The Celtic festival of Samhain ('SAH-win') was a pagan religious celebration to mark what was then the New Year and celebrate the harvest. Bonfires were a big part of the celebration, and people would wear costumes to confuse and ward off ghosts, who were believed to wander the earth at this time. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III chose 1 November as All Saints Day, and the evening before became known as All Hallows Eve, later Halloween. The idea of the dead coming into contact with the living continued.

Jack-o'-Lanterns originated in Ireland, but originally, turnips were used instead of pumpkins. A legend tells of a man called Jack who trapped the Devil and only let him go after he promised that Jack would never go to Hell. However, when Jack eventually died, it seems that Heaven didn't want him either, so he was condemned to wandering the Earth for eternity, carrying a burning lump of coal in a carved-out turnip to light his way. The idea behind carving scary faces into turnips is that it frightens away evil spirits. When Irish people emigrated to the US, they took this tradition with them, but not having turnips available, made use of a plentiful local vegetable - the pumpkin.

There are a number of theories surrounding the development of trick-or-treating. One suggests that it comes from the Scottish custom of guising, a secular version of 'souling'. Souling saw medieval people collect food and money on All Souls' Day in return for prayers for the dead. Guising was similar except that songs, jokes and tricks were the currency, rather than prayers.

When I was a child, Halloween wasn't as commercialised in the UK as it is today, but we still celebrated it. I grew up in the North of England which, similar to Scotland, has a long modern tradition of seasonal celebrations. Our costumes consisted of bin bags which could be made into vampire capes or witch dresses, plus a pointy hat or plastic mask from the local shop which made your face sweat. We went trick-or-treating with turnip lanterns lit with tealights that kept going out - the smell of burnt turnip still instantly conjures up Halloween for me.

My parents were brilliant when it came to Halloween - family friends brought their children over and we would have a party in the garage, which my dad would cover with black paper and light with a red or green bulb. We ate food made by my mam, including 'spiderweb shortbread' - shortbread with white icing piped on it to look like webs. We played games drawn and painted by my mam and made by my dad from wood and other bits and bobs, as well as the more traditional games such as bobbing for apples. At the end of the night, we would take it in turns to take a broom and whack a piñata that my dad had been painstakingly working on all week, breaking it in order to release the sweets inside.

Even today, I still love 'spooky season' - and I'm not alone. It's becoming more and more popular in the UK, and personally I'm really happy about that.