As the nights are well and truly drawing in and summer begins to feel like a distant memory, up pops Halloween to add some excitement and colour to a mid-autumn night.

Its origins are much debated but there is a practical reason offered in some quarters, which suggests that, since it occurs at the start of Winter - and with winter being a much darker and trickier time to navigate in times gone by - it was seen as the time where we were closest to the underworld. That would certainly explain the spooky goings on.

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