Hopped the border in peace today, to get my fireworks for Halloween. Seein as you lot like takin our petrol, I thought I'd liberate you's of some of your fireworks.

Got so much shit it's unbelievable. Some I'll be selling for a tidy profit, the rest will be going off in an irresponsible manner. God bless Holloween for givin me an excuse to set off explosives, and God bless the Brits for sellin me the explosives!

Anybody doin any crazy shit over Halloween?

Sl�n tamaill

Halloween actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve.

November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day") is a Catholic day of observance in honour of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Britain, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

On the last day of the Celtic calendar the Celts believed that the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. The still living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manners of ghoulish costumes and would noisily paraded around the neighbourhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away the spirits.

The Celtic tribes would then re-light their fires from a common source. The Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, was at Usinach. Similar locations were also present in other Celtic parts of Britain at the time.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Celts, but as a custom in the 9th century. This was called souling. On All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

British and primarily Irish immigrants brought the custom of Halloween to America in the 1840�s, initially to New England. The favourite prank at the time was to unhinge gates and doors.

Some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favourite "evil holiday," But the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a New Year, and out of medieval prayer rituals.

Today it has been commercialised and wrongly Americanised as a way of making money for shopkeepers and industry. But well, what the heck it is a great laugh. I will be in The Netherlands on the 31st. I am off to O�Caseys (An Irish/Expatriate bar in The Hague) to celebrate. Halloween is not the same in mainland europe as it is at home in the UK or Ireland. Still I am looking forward to a good night of drinking and loads of fun.