HALLOWEEN is one of the many events being looked forward to in various parts of the world every year.
Researchers say that its origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1.
They do so to mark the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that is often associated with human death.
They believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.
In the Philippines, it coincides with the occasion of All Saints' and All Souls' Days on November 1 and 2, respectively.
Halloween costume parties sprout everywhere in the archipelago, where attendees have to wear their scariest costumes.
Taking for example the event at the Bacolod City Government Center (BCGC) on Friday, October 28, where employees participated in the first Spooktacular Halloween Costume Contest.
This is an activity initiated by Mayor Albee Benitez and the City Administrator's Office, in collaboration with Human Resource Management Services, and Bacolod City Public Information Office.
Employees of the City Government are transformed into spooky characters, from a bloodied doctor to an engkanto (enchanted being).
At the end of the event, Jonathan Cashila from the City Cooperative Livelihood and Development Office (CCLDO) was hailed the best in Halloween costume and received a cash prize of P5,000.
He made a costume of a man whose head was almost severed by a piece of broken glass.
Lee Noel Ferrer from Public Order and Service Office (POSO) won the most creative costume as he transformed himself into a bloodied patient in a wheelchair being pushed by a bloodied nursing aid.
His engakto (enchanted being) costume, Stephen Ryan Rimpus from the Department of Public Services (DPS), won the best original costume that night.
Ferrer and Rimpus both received P 2,500 cash.
Also, five major prizes and twelve minor consolation prizes were awarded to the chosen spooky costumes from the 65 total participants.