As you might know, today (at the time of writing this) is October 31, which is halloween. But where did this all come from? and why is it called Halloween? Well, it started out with the ancient festival of Samhain, where people what where scary costumes and light bonfires to make ghosts go away. (sound familiar?) In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III made a new holiday that would be celebrated on November 1 and honor all saints, and it also adopted traditions Fromm the festival of Samhain. This holiday was eventually renamed All Hallow’s eve (and later Halloween) and adopted traditions like carving pumpkins, and have over-energetic kids get candy for free. My family has a tradition where we wrap hot dogs in dough and we call them “mummy dogs” and then, we eat them the night before halloween. This year, I am being a spider web and my favorite candy is pixie sticks. However, not every kid can say that they are going to wear a costume and get candy, and are too busy battling cancer. You can help this by donating to the UNC hospital and give them the best halloween ever.

My costume/ Photo by me