In our history lessons, (we homeschooled,) we were beginning to learn about the history of Halloween, and how it all began. (http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract10.html , http://www.demonbuster.com/halloween.html , and what the bible says about it: http://www.preparingforeternity.com/hallween.htm for an idea of some of the things we learned.) It was horrible to realize that some of our own Irish ancestors took part in such Baal worship where torture, horror, and death ruled. A group would go from house to house, demanding a person to be sacrificed on that night, and if a person was given over to be tortured, raped, and killed, (usually a slave girl,) then a lighted gourd would be given to them, to put in front of their home, as a sign to others that they had already given one of their humans over to the ceremony. If they refused to hand over anyone, then a hex was painted on their home in blood, which meant that someone in that home was marked for death and would be killed sometime that year. At the ceremony, they had a cauldron of boiling hot apples and cider. If you wanted to try and save yourself from the death that would follow, you could try to grab an apple with your teeth. But your hands would be tied behind your back, and few were able to get that apple. Those that did were scarred for life, for the boiling cider burned the face off to the point that you were almost unrecognizable. They also had The Wicker Man, where humans were put inside this huge wicker basket/prison that was formed into the shape of a man, and when it was filled with humans, it was set on fire, and the people inside of it were burned alive. This was definitely a part of our family’s history that we would rather renounce and turn away from, rather than remember every year!