The beginning of the celebration called Halloween started with the old Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-ain).

Celts lived 2,000-3,000 years ago in the area that would become known as United Kingdom and northern regions of France. Samhain marked the end of the old year and the beginning of the new and celebrated on November 1st. This time of the year was associated with death.

Celts thought that during this time the spirits of those who had crossed over came back to visit their loved ones or to create trouble . The Celts also thought that the presence of the spirits helped the Druids priests to make the yearly Samhain predictions about the coming year.

The Druids built huge sacred bone-fires, which is where the word 'bonfire' originated. People gathered to burn parts of their crops and livestock as sacrifices to the Celtic divinities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes made out of animals, and would try to tell each other's fortunes.

During the 7th century, Pope Boniface IV, decided to convert Celts to Christianity and November 1st became "All Saint's Day", a time to honor the old saints and the early martyrs of the Christian church.

The celebration also became known as All-Hallows or All-Hallowmas. These terms originate in the Middle English word 'Alholowmesse' which means All Saints' Day.

All-Hallows became Halloween in our contemporary world and kids wear a variety of costumes that are supposed to scare others and get some candy in the process.

On October 31st, you perhaps will be hosting a Halloween party and it is easy to think that, to celebrate the Halloween Eve, you would want to invite a great number of strange creatures such as goblins, vampires, witches, zombies, etc.

But... where to begin with your Halloween party preparation?

Firstly, you will have to decide who will be your guests. Children? Adults? Both? If you invite both kids and grownups, you will have to deal with the different needs of each group: for instance, you will have to plan activities for children and, as the evening progresses and once the kids are gone to bed, the entertainment can become more nightmarish.

Once you have your host list, it's time to create and send your invitation cards. This can be a fun job. Choose a scary theme, add some colors, specify whether your guests are required to wear a costume or not and if they have to bring food and beverage.

Set the Halloween theme in the rooms where you will hold the party. While a haunted house theme would be a great idea, you may not want to entirely decorate your home. However, your Halloween ornaments will include the most popular items, such as jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, witches, spiders and ghouls that will bring a frightening atmosphere to your home.

It is also time to decide whether you will host a sit down dinner or a buffet. If you are on a tight budget, you may decide to host a pot-luck party; however, with the pumpkin flesh left over after having carved your jack-o-lanterns, your menu will for sure include pumpkin soup and pumpkin pie; which will allow you to save money on your food expenses.

Last but not least, set the mood with some Halloween music and sound effects but keep in mind that your guests will probably prefer to dance to the popular music of the day. So, make up a compilation of Halloween and popular music especially for the party.

Plan to organize some Halloween games and activities for children as well as for adults.

Due to the economic recession, you probably will want to create your Halloween decoration items by yourself.

Here is the basic craft equipment needed:

• Various craft paintings: black, white, orange, etc. (pots and spraying cans)
• Gold and silver paint (spraying cans)
• Black, white, silver and gold markers

Have your equipment?

Ok, so let's start the fun!

Colored Pumpkins

The best way to save money on your Halloween expenses is by recycling your old ornaments.

So, what about painting your old pumpkins?

For funny Halloween pumpkins for kids, paint them yellow, orange, red, blue, green, etc. and draw some Halloween shapes with a black marker or paint these shapes with bright colors.

For luxurious Halloween decoration items, paint them silver or gold.

Teenagers would surely like metallic or glow-in-the-dark paintings.

You may also want to paint them black or white. Example: paint a ceramic pumpkin white and draw Halloween figures with a black marker or gold marker on a black pumpkin.

Halloween Lights

You probably have small yogurt glass jars. Paint them orange, black and white; draw different Halloween shapes on each of them and pour a tea light candle in each jar. Place as many Halloween lights as you have on your dinner or buffet table.

Halloween is traditionally about the legendary beings of the underworld and ghosts that supposed to live in that strange world between the living and the dead.

Spectres, ghouls, the living deads and spirits take a lot of forms in the imagination, and inspired endless costume variations on what you are able to do with an white sheet of fabric and a scissors. That imagination has began to run out after so many years, and Halloween enthusiasts have searched new inspiration for their costume.

Goblins, witches and other generally malefic characters of the fairy tale domain have inspired a different category of Halloween costumes. Disney movie costume designs have been a popular inspiration for Halloween costumes, such as the dress of the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or the Harry Potter series of films. Endless sources of inspiration have been found countless other films and a rich history of fairy tale book illustration.

Vampires and Dracula have provided a very popular new impulsion of themes with tuxedos and capes for men and flowing medieval dresses for ladies, accessorized with bloody fangs and other chilling additions.

The fictional characters of Adams Family TV series have been built on this topic. One of the Adams characters included one of the famous Frankenstein's Monster, with the well known bolts on the side of his neck. Werewolves and other characters from horror movies, are also popular Halloween costume ideas.

Superman, Batman, Spiderman as well as Pirate of the Carribeans series of movies brought a choice of fictional characters providing a bunch of different costume designs that can be adapted for Halloween.

Clowns, movie and TV characters are also very popular as Halloween costumes. The idea is to be creative as well as having the sense of humor when you select your Halloween costume theme.

The Addams Family was a popular TV series during the sixties and provides a bunch of different top Halloween costumes for you to choose from. Moreover, it allows you to make your costume yourself.

Let's take an example:

Morticia Addams

• Use a black long fitted dress
• Put white makeup on your face

• Draw the outline of your eyes with black eyeliner
• Apply black mascara on your eyelashes and black pencil on your eyebrows.

• Apply dark red or black lipstick on your lips
• Black varnish on your nails or paste false black fingernails
• Dress your head with a black wig

That's it :)

Happy Halloween!

There have been a lot of excellent and memorable television shows and movies during the seventies.

A great example is the first episode of the Star Wars trilogy (subtitled later A New Hope) that hit the box-office during this time frame.

Star Wars' main characters are Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Darth Vader, which are an excellent basis to create an original costume.

However, there are plenty of other characters for you to choose from: Wedge Antilles the starfighter pilot, imperial soldiers, stormtroopers, etc.