What to Watch this Halloween Holiday

When you look back through time, you can trace back to when Halloween began. It all started with the Celtic Culture that was then located in Ireland. Celtics were Druid, and Halloween comes from their beliefs. On the Celt's calendar, November 1st was their New Years, so like our own Dec. 31st, celebration for the holiday would begin the night before, October 31st, and continue on throughout the following day. It is said that the spirits of those that had just died that year would rise and wander around the earth in their ghostly spirit all night. They are said to be looking for the passageway between this world and the netherworld. The "veil" between the two worlds is supposed to be at its thinnest on this night. Some were said to be evil, such as Lord Samhain, the Lord of Darkness.

The Druids religion worshiped Samhain, and in some history, he is also called the "Lord of the Dead". Samhain is said to have reigned over the winter months and took precedence over the Sun god, Beltaine. Samhain literally means "summer's end", and the Celts only acknowledged summer and winter seasons. Samhain can only wander about in the hours of darkness and night. On Halloween Night, he is in search of the souls who have risen, to take them back to his own world of darkness. Hence, the habit of putting a light in your window, to help those souls find their way home and not into the arms of Samhain. This practice is still in use today.

To celebrate this spooky night, the Celts wore costumes that were said to be made mostly from animal heads and skins. They built huge bonfires, burned crops and sacrificed animals to the Celtic deities. From here comes the traditional wearing of a costume for Halloween. They also told fortunes, and prepared themselves for the long, upcoming winter months.

Halloween is also commonly known as "All Hallows Eve". All Saints day is a holiday that was formed by the Roman Catholic Church to honor the Saints on November 1st. It recognizes the saints, many of those who are martyrs, and celebrates over 10,000 saints. November 2nd is reserved for All Soul's Day. This is the day to remember and pay your respect to the souls of family and friends who have died. This day was started in 998. Some people even ask their dead loved ones for special favors on this day.

October is the month for Halloween movies and cartoons to be seen. Alot of networks run specials leading up to that spooky day of October 31st. You'll be able to find pretty much everything you want...if you know where to look. So heres a rundown of some of the more most popular networks and they're Halloween listings.

ABC Family perhaps one of the most popular TV Halloween scheduling, ABC Family runs their 13 days of Halloween marathon, starting on Thursday the 19th and running into Halloween, with weekends being most of the day long. Look for many favorites such as The Sixth Sense, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, Sabrina, The Teenaged Witch, The Shining, and much more.

AMC runs an even better Halloween Lineup.On Tuesday, October 23rd, their movies start, and run all day long, bringing some of the scariest, bloodiest shows you'll want to see. Highlights include The Exorcist, Poltergeist, the original to 3, The howling, The Fog, Dracula, PuppetMastre, The Fury, Hell raiser, all the Halloweens, and much more. Check their schedule at http://movies.amctv.com/schedule to get the most out of your holiday movie viewing pleasure.

Sci-Fi
The Sci-Fi channel begins their own Halloween marathon starting on October 19th at 8:00 am in the morning. With their own 13 days of Halloween, you'll get to see over 250 hours of science fiction movies, miniseries, and horror movies. Some featured must-sees are The Gravedancers, premiering on October 20th at 9:00 pm, The Hamilton's, premiering on October 28th at 5:00 pm, and Ghost Hunters Live on Halloween night.