Whats the meaning of Holloween............?Means nothing here.
Didn't use to mean that much here, either.
It became popular in later Victorian America to celebrate a party at Halloween, combining elements of old Irish and Scottish folklore with some others (as is so often the case here, in the melting pot), but it was reallly more for adults.
Fast forward a generation or so, and the idea of celebrations more for kids starts to take off, especially in the immediate post-war decade. And when those kids grew up and had children of their own, they passed on that focus.
Now, it's so out of hand that we see "Halloween sales" and decorations are on sale even before the summer ends. And people decorate their homes even in the last days of September. On the other hand, my mother used to put up a carboard skeleton on the front door, and it usually stayed up till it was time to put up the Christmas tree...
And here is the Lehigh Valley, it's common for the municipalities to declare a specific date for Halloween, so that it's not observed on the 31st. They declare an official date for kids to go trick-or-treating, and for their parades. This year, when Halloween falls on a Saturday, every town and borough here in Lehigh and Northampton Counties has already celebrated Halloween by last weekend. I grew up only 30 miles southeast of here, and never saw that, until I moved up here. We went out on the 31st for trick-or-treat, on whatever evening it fell, and the night before, the 30th, was Mischief Night. (Since my parents would let me out for Mischief Night, I used to take a bag of tricks along with me on Halloween itself
).
Today, Halloween is like some sort of cross between Mardi Gras and the Celtic Classics that are held in various parts of the country (that is, about as authentically Celtic as "Hogan's Heroes" is authentically German).
I'll be keeping the lights off Friday night, and crawling around on the floor, so no one knows I'm home. Or I'll sit outside with an air rifle and guard the house.
Prost!
Brad