However, the modern day celebration doesn't have much to do with the ancient rites and reasoning behind All Hallows Eve, according to Aveni. And he should know, having just released a book THE BOOK OF THE YEAR - A BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR SEASONAL HOLIDAYS (available from Amazon US and UK).

The evolution of Halloween has moved from the serious to the ridiculous with trick-or-treating beginning only in the last century," commented Professor Aveni, who has written numerous well-received books on archaeoastronomy and the beginnings of astrology.

Aveni notes the numerous rites observed during history on the date of Halloween:

• Alexandrian Egyptians laid out food for the dead and fastened oil lamps to the eves of their houses to commemorate them.
• Ancient Romans threw black beans at spirits, hoping that they would accept the beans instead of kidnapping living family members (sounds like a fair deal!).
• Meanwhile, the ancient Celts considered Halloween to be a time when the gates between the living and the dead opened.
• The jack-o-lantern has Irish roots, from the myth about an Irishman who played tricks on the devil, and wandered with a hollowed-out turnip lit with a coal from hell.
• The Germans in 1000 A.D. called it Hallowmas.
• Mexicans celebrate the Days
• America introduced the idea of trick-or-treating less than a century ago, in 1939.

And tricking was definitely more popular than treating until the latter half of the 20th Century, perhaps a sign of the increasing consumerism that grasped the western world.