Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, bobbing for apples, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.
The roots of the many Halloween traditions can reportedly be traced back to pagan rites of old and to ancient Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain.
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© AP Photo
U.S. servicemen bob for apples with their USO hostess companions during a Halloween party hosted by the tenants of a 14-story apartment building at Beekman Place in New York City, Nov. 1, 1943.
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© AP Photo / William A. Smith
With Halloween approaching, an unusual sight was seen in the skies over Bowie, Maryland on Oct. 28, 1966. Further investigation revealed that Marleen Luckman, 17, was playing the part of a witch riding a broomstick. She was caught on camera in mid-air, leaping from a trampoline, on a double exposed film.
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© AP Photo / Ray Stubblebine
Participants of the 10th annual Halloween Parade in New York, October 31, 1983, don't have time to loaf as they move with the flow of marchers through Greenwich village. The event attracted some 250,000 people who watched or marched in the parade.
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© AP Photo / Alberto Marquez
Children dressed as witches rollerblade their way around a subdivision in the Manila suburb of Makati, trick-or-treating for on October 31, 1996. The children performed no tricks at all as they hopped from one house to the nest, but were still treated to lots of candy.
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© AP Photo / Dima Gavrysh
Attendees of the 35th Annual Halloween Parade sit on Manhattan's Sixth Avenue, October 31, 2008.
Participants of the annual Halloween parade in New York.
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© AP Photo / Carlos Osorio
Detroit Symphony Orchestra cellist Marcy Chanteaux dons a ghoul outfit during a Halloween week performance at Symphony Hall in Detroit on October 26, 2000. Several members of the symphony wore costumes as they played music from various popular movies.
"Cowgirls" parade down Key West's Duval Street, in the Floridian festival's highlight event, the BellSouth Fantasy Fest Parade on October 28, 2000. The parade, featuring 75 floats, bands and "imprecision marching units," was the highlight event of the island city's 10-day festival. Festival organizers estimated that 75,000 to 80,000 revelers viewed the parade.
A man dressed up as a "Jack Skellington" takes part in the Halloween celebrations in Churriana near Malaga, Spain on October 31, 2016.
Costumed people attend the West Hollywood Halloween Costume Carnival on October 31, 2007. The world-famous costume party on Santa Monica Boulevard is the largest adult outdoor Halloween event in the world. An estimated half a million people participate or come to watch the party of ghouls and goblins.
A man dressed as an extraterrestrial participates in the "Halloween Convoy of Terror" on October 29, 2009, in Cali, Colombia.
Jugglers throw fake bloody arms over a female visitor during a performance at Universal Studios Japan (USJ) in Osaka, September 24, 2002, as a Hollywood theme park kicks off events fashionably early for Halloween.
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© AP Photo / Seth Wenig
A women dressed as a pumpkin patch helps a person dressed as an arm chair check the time at the 33rd annual Village Halloween Parade in New York, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006.
People dressed in colorful Halloween costumes parade along LA's famous Santa Monica Boulevard during the annual street Halloween festival in West Hollywood, California on October 31, 2016. The event, which often attracts over 500,000 participants, is billed as the largest Halloween party in the world.
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© AP Photo / Andres Kudacki
A reveler poses for photographers during the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade on October 31, 2017, in New York.
