Samhain became the Halloween of modern times when Christian missionaries attempted to change the religious practices of the Celtic people. In the early centuries of the first millennium A.D., before missionaries such as St. Patrick and St. Columcille converted them to Christianity, the Celts practiced an elaborate religion through their priestly caste, the Druids, who were priests, poets, scientists and scholars all at once just like the brahmins of Hindu religion. As religious leaders, ritual specialists, and bearers of learning, the Druids were not unlike the very missionaries and monks who were to Christianize their people and brand them as devil worshippers.

As a result of their efforts to wipe out “pagan” holidays, such as Samhain, the Christians succeeded in effecting major transformations in it. In 601 A.D., Pope Gregory I issued a now famous edict to his missionaries concerning the native beliefs and customs of the peoples he hoped to convert.^{[citation needed]} Rather than try to obliterate native peoples’ customs and beliefs, the pope instructed his missionaries to use them: if a group of people worshipped a tree, rather than cut it down, he advised them to consecrate it to Christ and allow its continued worship.

This is the traditional popular press account of the “history of Halloween”. The story is, in fact, more complicated. By the mid-fourth century Christians in the Mediterranean world, without prompting by any “Celtic people”, were already keeping a feast in honour of all those who had been martyred under the pagan emperors; it is mentioned in the Carmina Nisibena of St Ephraem, (died 373) as being held on 13 May. …By 800 churches in England and Germany, which were in touch with each other, were celebrating a festival dedicated to all saints upon 1 November instead. The oldest text of Bede’s Martyrology, from the eighth century, does not include the festival on this date, but the recensions at the end of the century do. Charlemagne’s favourite churchman Alcuin was keeping it by then, as were also his friend Arno, bishop of Salzburg, and a church in Bavaria. Pope Gregory, therefore, was endorsing and adopting a practice which had begun in northern Europe. Nevertheless, All Saints on November 1 had not, however, started in Ireland, where the Felire of Oengus and the Martyrology of Tallaght prove that the early medieval churches celebrated the feast of All Saints upon 20 April. …both ‘Celtic’ Europe and Rome had changed over to a Germanic practice.^[1]}} On the other hand, Christianity outside of this jurisdiction has retained celebration of All Saints in the spring, scheduled in relationship to Pentecost.

Samhain, with its emphasis on the supernatural, was decidedly pagan. While missionaries identified their holy days with those observed by the Celts, they branded the earlier religion’s supernatural deities as evil, and associated them with the devil.^{[citation needed]} As representatives of the rival religion, Druids were considered evil worshippers of devilish or demonic gods and spirits. The Celtic underworld thusly became identified with the Christian Hell.

The effects of this policy were to diminish but not totally eradicate the beliefs in the traditional gods. Celtic belief in supernatural creatures persisted, while the church made deliberate attempts to define them as being not merely dangerous, but malicious. Followers of the old religion went into hiding, branded as witches.

It is claimed that he old beliefs associated with Samhain never died out entirely and that All Saints Day, otherwise known as All Hallows (hallowed, i.e. sanctified or holy), continued the ancient Celtic traditions. However, there is frustratingly little primary documentation of how Halloween was celebrated in preindustrial Ireland. Historian Nicholas Rogers has written,

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The evening prior to the day was the time of the most intense activity, both human and supernatural. People continued to celebrate All Hallows Eve as a time of the wandering dead, but the supernatural beings were now thought to be evil. The folk continued to propitiate those spirits (and their masked impersonators) by setting out gifts of food and drink. Subsequently, All Hallows Eve became Hallow Evening, which became Hallowe’en—an ancient Celtic, pre-Christian New Year’s Day in contemporary dress.Hindus in North India have their New Year Celebration in autumn. Since Hindu follow a Lunar calendar, the date of this festival called Diwali( Festival of lights falls between middle of October & middle of November. The day after New moon is the start of the New Year according to this tradition. It is believed in India that black magic can only be learned on the dark night of New moon.

Many supernatural creatures became associated with All Hallows. In Ireland, fairies were numbered among the legendary creatures who roamed on Halloween. An old folk ballad called Allison Gross tells the story of how the fairy queen saved a man from a witch’s spell on Halloween.

O Allison Gross, that lives in yon tower

the ugliest witch in the North Country…

She’s turned me into an ugly worm

and gard me toddle around a tree…

But as it fell out last Hallow even

When the seely [fairy] court was riding by,

the Queen lighted down on a gowany bank

Not far from the tree where I wont to lie…

She’s change me again to my own proper shape

And I no more toddle about the tree.

In old England, cakes were made for the wandering souls, and people went “a’ soulin’” for these “soul cakes”. Halloween, a time of magic, also became a day of divination, with a host of magical beliefs: for instance, if persons hold a mirror on Halloween and walk backwards down the stairs to the basement, the face that appears in the mirror will be their next lover.

Virtually all present Halloween traditions can be traced to the ancient Celtic day of the dead.^{[citation needed]} Halloween is a holiday of many mysterious customs, but each one has a history, or at least a story behind it. The wearing of costumes, for instance, and roaming from door to door demanding treats can be traced to the Celtic period and the first few centuries of the Christian era, when it was thought that the souls of the dead were out and around, along with fairies, witches, and demons. Offerings of food and drink were left out to placate them. As the centuries wore on, people began dressing like these dreadful creatures, performing antics in exchange for food and drink.^{[citation needed]} This practice is called mumming, although the similar American practice of trick-or-treating appears to have evolved independently. To this day, witches, ghosts, and skeleton figures of the dead are among the favorite disguises. Halloween also retains some features that hearken back to the original harvest holiday of Samhain, such as the customs of bobbing for apples and carving vegetables, as well as the fruits, nuts, and spiced cider associated with the day. Today Halloween is becoming once again an adult holiday or masquerade, like Mardi gras.

“The fight went to a decision and Ibragimov won the decision and I just have to get back in line and it doesn’t mean that it’s over,” Evander Holyfield told reporters via telephone from Moscow following his loss to WBO heavyweight champion Sultan Ibragimov. The former four-time champion said he will assess his performance after he actually sees video of the fight and he’ll take into consideration what people say about his performance in the ring. “Did I do so bad that it’s not worth it for me to try?”

Evander also stated that he was surprised Ibragimov moved as much as he did and which forced him to change his game plan. “I didn’t throw enough combinations as my corner wanted me to but he [Ibragimov] was quick in the sense that I didn’t feel comfortable in throwing the combinations.” As for a body shot in the tenth round that appeared to cause some discomfort, Evander admitted, “It was a clean shot, it was a clean shot but it didn’t hurt me. It made me draw up but not to a point… it was a very good shot.”

Rizza is currently busy pursuing a carrer in acting and singing that it would not be possible for her to join PBB at this time.

A story is told about a s0ldier who was finally coming home after having fought in Vietnam . He called his parents from San Francisco.

“Mom and Dad, I’m coming home, but I’ve a favor to ask. I have a friend I’d like to bring home with me.” Sure, they replied, “we’d love to meet him.” “There’s something you should know,” the son continued, “he was hurt pretty badly in the fighting. He stepped on a land mind and lost an arm and a leg. He has nowhere else to go, and I want him to come live with us.” “I’m sorry to hear that, son. Maybe we can help him find somewhere to live.” “No, Mom and Dad, I want him to live with us.”

“Son,” said the father, “you don’t know what you’re asking. Someone with such a handicap would be a terrible burden on us. We have our own lives to live, and we can’t let something like this interfere with our lives. I think you should just come home and forget about this guy. He’ll find a way to live on his own.”

At that point, the son hung up the phone. The parents heard nothing more from him. A few days later, however, they received a call from the San Francisco p0lice. Their son had died after falling from a building, they were told. The p0lice believed it was suicide.

The grief-stricken parents flew to San Francisco and were taken to the city morgue to identify the body of their son. They recognized him, but to their horror they also discovered something they didn’t know, their son had only one arm and one leg.

The parents in this story are like many of us. We find it easy to love those who are good-looking or fun to have around, but we don’t like people who inconvenience us or make us feel uncomfortable. We would rather stay away from people who aren’t as healthy, beautiful, or smart as we are.

Thankfully, there’s someone who won’t treat us that way. Someone who loves us with an unconditional love that welcomes us into the forever family, regardless of how messed up we are.

Tonight, before you tuck yourself in for the night, say a little prayer that God will give you the strength you need to accept people as they are, and to help us all be more understanding of those who are different from us. There’s a miracle called Friendship That dwells in the heart You don’t know how it happens Or when it gets started But you know the special lift It always brings. And you realize that Friendship Is God’s most precious gift!Friends are a very rare jewel, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share a word of praise, and they always want to open their hearts to us. Show your friends how much you care.

1. Bill Gates earns US$250 every SECOND, that’s about US$20 Million a DAY and US$7.8 Billion a YEAR!

2. If he drops a thousand dollar, he won’t even bother to pick it up because the 4 seconds he picks it, he would’ve already earned it back.

3. The US national debt is about 5.62 trillion, if Bill Gates were to pay the debt by himself; he will finish it in less then 10 years.

4. He can donate US$15 to everyone on earth but still be left with US$5 Million for his pocket money.

5. Michael Jordan is the highest paid athlete in US. If he doesn’t drink and eat, and keeps up his annual income i.e. US$30 Million, he’ll have to wait for 277 years to become as rich as Bill Gates is now.

6. If Bill Gates was a country, he would be the 37th richest country on earth.

7. If you change all of Bill Gate’s money to US$1 notes, you can make a road from earth to moon, 14 times back and forth. But you have to make that road non-stop for 1,400 years, and use a total of 713 BOEING 747 planes to transport all the money.

8. Bill Gates is 40 this year. If we assume that he will live for another 35 years, he has to spend US$6.78 Million per day to finish all his money before he can go to heaven.

Last but not the least: If Microsoft Windows’ users can claim US$1 for every time their computers hang because of Microsoft Windows, Bill Gates will be bankrupt in 3 years.

This particular issue of UNO is dubbed as The Supermodel Issue and is now available in news stands.

Mon Macutay, Level Up! Marketing Manager, explains the goals of Valkyrie, “Ragnarok Valkyrie aims to grow the market by reaching out to people who are not used to paying the monthly subscription fee. Instead of paying for their game time, players can opt to buy in-game items using top-up cards which will help them in their adventures.” Besides being free-to-play, Valkyrie’s server settings and features are considered firsts in the world of online gaming. Various maps are player-kill (PK) enabled which means players can attack one another without any warning.