Happy Halloween!!!

My daughter asked me last night why the holiday is called Halloween.

I told her it's shorthand for "All Hollow's Eve". Well, duh, Mom, what does that mean? Tomorrow, November 1st, is All Saint's Day, or All Hollow's Day.

Wikipedia has a great entry about the history of Halloween. Believe it or not, Ireland is listed there as being the country where Halloween is the most popular. Given what we spend in America, I'd be curious to know just HOW it's more popular over there than over here. It does say that Ireland gives their kids a whole week off of school for "Halloween Break", so the kids never have school on Halloween (like our kids do today- right now! In school, surely not concentrating when all of that candy is waiting for them tonight!)

Yahoo! returned over 198 MILLION matches on the searchword "Halloween".

It's become big business, too. Wikipedia says that Halloween is the sixth most profitable holiday for retailers in the USA. Disneyland has had so much success with this year's Halloween Time promotion that you can bet they'll be poring more money into it next year. Our local party store? I couldn't even shove my way close to the costumes at 2pm on a weekday. Dog costumes are flying off the shelf this year (costumes... for your dog!)

OK, I'll admit, I almost bought the Yoda costume for my dog, the one we call Yoda because her ears stick out like, well, Yoda's.

But I didn't. Instead, I spent way too much on a costume for my daughter that she'll get to wear twice (once to the school carnival, once tonight for trick or treating). And I bought a costume for my daughter to wear to her birthday party this weekend (themed appropriately), also expensive.

Plus, every year I add a Halloween decoration to our ever-growing holiday collection.

How do you celebrate? How much do you spend on Halloween? Tell me about it in the comments...

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!!!

* photo courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween