"The spirits of the dead, who stood

In life before thee, are again

In death around thee, and their will

Shall overshadow thee; be still" - Edgar Allan Poe

(`Spirits of the Dead', 1829)

Masquerading in costumes and rampaging through the streets in search of candies, apples, nuts and biscuits seems like harmless fun. However, the history of Hallowe'en is based upon old European heathen customs and terrifying Druid practices.

Over the centuries the traditions associated with October 31 were diluted by the Romans and then by the Church, who defeated the Druids and recognised Hallows' Eve as the eve before the highly honoured All Saints' Day, held on November 1.

Every year the shop shelves are spilling over with witch outfits, pumpkins and scary masks and young people indulge in the bizarre custom of "trick or treating".

For many of us, our first encounter with witches was in `The Wizard of Oz', a movie adaptation of the classic L. Frank Baum story `The Wonderful Wizard Oz'.

Dancing, squeaky-voiced Munchkins, a yellow brick road and Judy Garland, sporting a pair of ruby slippers, provides a tantalising Hollywood spectacular for children and adults.

However, it was Margaret Hamilton's portrayal of the most evil genetic throwback of a witch imaginable, who continues to taunt young viewers in the comfort of their living rooms.

The Wicked Witch of the West still haunts me today. The sight of this green-faced, demonic old harridan with a long hooked nose, propelling herself around on a broomstick, cackling at Dorothy, "I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too", still makes me shake like an old soak craving malt whisky.

For me I found Margaret Hamilton far more disturbing than Robert Helpmann as the Child Catcher in `Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'.

Fortunately, Margaret Hamilton in real life was the complete opposite of her daunting alter ego. She stood at a mere five feet tall and adored young children, having run her own nursery school.

The Witch is a very focal figure in the history of Hallowe'en. `Witch' derives from the Saxon word `Wicca' (wise one).

During the Dark Ages in central Europe, the Christians destroyed pagan temples and pagan worship culminated in witchcraft. Each year saw a number of `Witches' Sabbaths'. Held on October 31, the `Black Sabbath' was considered the most important.

Witches' Brooms associated with flying, were used in European pagan marriage and birth rituals. A traditional broomstick is made from ash, birch twigs and a willow branch, which together were thought to signify protection, love and healing. Anyone familiar with Celtic traditions, will understand the significance of hanging a broom on your front door. A properly made broom is a great purifier and as such, it was believed a broom would ward of evil spirits.

In the 17th Century, new witches were anointed by being smeared in aconite (sacred ointment), which induced the illusion of the effects of flying. The ointment quickened the pulse and fuddled the mind, making witches convinced they were air-borne.

Terry Tucker's book, `Bermuda and the Supernatural', documents how an old lady in Germany, convinced she could fly, "anointed her broom. straddled it - and fell upon a seat in a coma, making violent movements with her arms and hands as if in flight."

Anything and everything seemed to be attributed to witchcraft and it wasn't just the elderly, warty or the ugly accused of sorcery. Throughout Europe, witch-hunts saw young children and teenage girls and boys put to death. Their persecutors were generally vicious, jealous `friends' or neighbours. Almost anyone could be accused of it.

Hysteria and panic soon spread throughout Europe and as Terry Tucker rightfully remarks in her book, "The witchcraft mania that swept so many countries is a subject of eternal fascination since it presents a horrifying example of mob-hysteria, of the demoralising effects of fear, and of the ability of man for self-delusion."

The Old English word `Hallow' means Holy. `Hallows' Eve' or `Hallowe'en', as it is more commonly known, means `the evening of holy persons' and falls the night before All Saints Day.

On this day unrecognised Saints in the church register were finally venerated with a day of their own, on which people could pay their respects to them.

Hallowe'en can be traced back hundreds of years before Christ, to the Celts, when Celtic folklore swept through England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Germany and France (particularly in Brittany). The pagan Celts embraced sorcery, magic and tales, celebrating and worshipping various gods throughout the year.

October 31 was a significant day in the Celtic calendar, marking the Eve of the Celtic New Year.

The ancient Celtic Festival of Samhain (Gaelic word for November) marks the beginning of the winter cycle and the end of the passing year. Wiccans and Neo-Pagans still celebrate the festival.

During this time the Celts paid their respects to Baal, The Sun God, but when Night cast his thick, black, shadow of gloom over the Earth, spirits were thought to pull back the curtains dividing them from the physical world, stepping through them to roam amongst the living.

It was believed that the spirits would embark on a pilgrimage to their old haunts and reunite with living relatives in their homes. Villagers would lay out huge banquets in preparation for their spiritual forefathers.

It was also thought that witches, goblins and other creatures would visit neighbourhoods, wreaking havoc upon villages. As such, Druids constructed bonfires out of oak, which were built on hilltops, to ward them off and to guide spirit relatives homeward bound.

The Celts were intent on keeping Saman (the Lord of the Dead) at arm's length, believing he would call upon evil sprits to visit the living world, so the Druids performed various rituals in order to keep them at bay. Unfortunately though, the Celtic priests or Druids, did have a brutal habit of sacrificing humans for their gods.

The pagan Celtic practice of dressing up in forbidding costumes arose from a desperate need of common-folk to frighten away evil spirits from their villages, and instead of carving faces into pumpkins and placing a candle inside of them, they carved nightmarish, contorted faces into turnips, using them as lanterns in order to ward of grisly ghouls.

It wasn't until the 1800s, when the Irish immigrants arrived in the US, that the use of pumpkins as a far more threatening vegetable replaced the turnip. The name `jack-o'- lantern' derives from the legend of an Irishman named Jack.

After the Roman conquest, the Druids with their barbaric sacrificial customs were almost eradicated.

The Christians decided to adapt the more popular Pagan festivals, amalgamating some of the celebrated holidays into their religion. They used Hallowe'en as a way of recognising Christians persecuted and martyred earlier in their history. It was the Roman Emperor Diocletian who ordered the last persecution of the Christians.

In an attempt to eradicate outlandish middle-aged customs, Pope Gregory III, decided that the festival for saintly martyrs held on May 13 should be moved to November 1, renaming it `All Hallows' Day' or `All Saints' Day'. However, still impressed by earlier traditions, ordinary village folk continued to recognise visits from their ghostly relatives on All Hallows' Evening.

The bizarre custom of "trick or treating" can be traced back hundreds of years ago to Ireland. Although I have come across several interpretations of why this custom arose, the most common one seems to be that Druids, farmers and villagers would knock on the doors of neighbours' houses in the hope of receiving food for their feasts and anyone not obliging with a handout was thought badly of or even cursed.

In later years in England, families would sit by the hearth on Hallowe'en, telling each other stories and eating apples and nuts. On November 2 (All Souls' Day) poor people went begging or `a-souling' and in exchange, families would give them `soul cakes'.

Some of the bizarre party games associated with Hallowe'en, originate from Roman customs and rituals. Apple-bobbing was considered a fortune-telling game in which single men and women would have to retrieve the apple from a bucket of water with their teeth. It was thought that the first person to do so would marry in the near future.

Anyone in search of a really spooky read over Hallowe'en should purchase `The Woman in Black' by Susan Hill. In order to obtain the full, shocking clout of this spine-chilling tale, it should be read alone in candlelight.

This is possibly one of the most petrifying stories I have come across. Susan Hill brilliantly writes about the terrors lurking within the subconscious. Set in a remote Northern English village, Crythin Gifford (market town), a young solicitor, Arthur Kipps, encounters the most odious Victorian ghost, appearing to him in the secluded Eel Marsh manor, once belonging to the deceased Mrs. Drablow, hidden away along a foggy, bleak, inhospitable causeway.

These days, hospitality is the watchword for Hallowe'en.

Anyone simply wishing for a serene Hallowe'en, away from the ghosts, witches and "trick or treating", but still wanting to participate in the evening's happenings, could leave a jar of candies outside their front door.

Making Hallowe'en a family affair is an excellent way to spend an evening. Throwing a dinner party, making some toffee apples and telling creepy tales in candlelight, will delight most young children and some adults.

Parents and responsible adults should accompany young children on their quest for treats, most notably for the security of a precious child and for the safety of elderly residents, who may not want to open their front doors to a bunch of youths wearing scary masks and donning Batman outfits teamed with green, saggy tights, leg warmers and pixie boots.

Meanwhile readers, there is something to be said for staying in the sanctity of your own home during Hallowe'en, curled up on the settee with a cherished dog or cat, a scary movie and the heavenly poetry of Edgar Allan Poe.

Simply place your menacing-looking pumpkin in the porch, close the blinds and leave the ghosts to it.