While you’re out trick or treating look out for the October issue of What’s Hot London magazine packed with lots of themed events and club nights for your last minute plans on the last evening of the month. Our writers Demon Daz Fabulously Fetish & Macabre Halloween and Lynn Carratt Things to do This Halloween give you a break down of the best events London-wide with accompanying seasonally macabre images of gothic masquerades and must-go gatherings. For braver souls there is info on Haunted London and their walks through streets and visits to houses with spooky histories.
And talking of history, Halloween originated from the Celtic festival of Samhain where people lit bonfires to scare off ghosts on the eve before their New Year, which back then was on November 1st. The Celtic druids believed these malevolent spirits were responsible for failed crops and all manner of ill fortune summoned from the earth. Samhain eventually became Hallows Eve before the Halloween we recognize today.
The Irish and English tradition of trick or treating was eventually exported to Irish communities in the US where today it is more popular than its UK birth place and Halloween festivities there are second only to Christmas celebrations.
