insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 08 - October 2015 | Page 65

HALLOWEEN Sussex Halloween Haunts If there is one thing that October is known for (apart from the clocks going back giving us an extra hour in bed – hooray!), it’s Halloween. 31st October has long been a celebration of the ghoulish and the ghostly. The tradition dates back around 2,000 years and its origins can be found in the old Celtic festival of Samhain, which celebrated the end of the harvest period. The Gaelic people believed that if the crops weren’t harvested on time, then the dead would come back to life to destroy what was left, and wreak havoc over the earth. That’s why, if Halloween is your kind of holiday, you’re in gruesome luck – there are plenty of blood curdling events taking place across the county to give you a scare – so beware (and have fun)! 65