As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there.

It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.

In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.

At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.

Today, Halloween brings to mind over-the-top costumes and chocolate hangovers. So it's no surprise that many consider it to be a thoroughly American invention. The truth is, Americans were among the last to jump aboard the Halloween bandwagon. How do other countries celebrate this age-old holiday? Read on to find out.

El Dia De Los Muertos
In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain, All Souls' Day, which takes place on November 2, is commemorated with a three-day celebration that begins on the evening of October 31. The ritual is designed to honor the dead who, it is believed, return to their earthly homes on Halloween. Many families construct altars in their homes to honor deceased relatives. Decorated with candy, flowers, photographs, samples of the deceased's favorite foods, and fresh water, the altar often includes a washbasin and towel so the spirit can clean up before indulging in the feast.

In order to help the deceased find their way home, families burn candles and incense. They also tidy the gravesites, decorating them with flowers, wreaths, or paper streamers. On November 2, relatives gather at the gravesite to picnic and reminisce, and some even include tequila and mariachi music in the festivities. Such celebrations are said to date back to ancient Egyptian times.

Guy Fawkes Day
The English, for the most part, stopped celebrating Halloween with Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation. And while followers of the new religion did not believe in saints, a new autumn ritual did emerge. Designed to commemorate the execution of a notorious English traitor, Guy Fawkes Day takes place on the evening of November 5, when bonfires, effigies and fireworks are lit throughout England.

On November 5, 1606, Fawkes was executed after being convicted of attempting to blow up England's parliament building. Fawkes was a member of a Catholic group who wanted to remove the Protestant King James from power. Today, children in some parts of England walk the streets carrying an effigy or "guy" and ask for "a penny for the guy." This is as close to the American practice of trick-or-treating as can be found in England today. Guy Fawkes Day was celebrated by the pilgrims at the first settlement at Plymouth, but as the young nation began to develop its own history, the holiday eventually died out.

The Original Halloween
In Ireland, where Halloween first began, the day is still celebrated much as it is in the United States. In rural areas, bonfires are lit as they were in the days of the Celts, and all over the country, children get dressed up in costumes and spend the evening trick-or-treating. Afterward, neighborhood parties include games like snap-apple (similar to apple bobbing, but on a string), treasure hunts, and card tricks. Children are also known to play tricks like knock-a-dolly, where they knock on their neighbor's door and run away before it's opened.

The Irish also have a traditional Halloween dessert called a barnbrack, which is a muslin-wrapped fruitcake with treats baked inside. According to tradition, the type of treat inside one's barnbrack can foretell his or her future. For example, a ring signifies a wedding while a piece of straw indicates prosperity.