Halloween preparations.

Halloween (the 31st October) is the night when witches are supposed to ride and hold their covens. This is because the next day is the Christian Feast of All Saints Day when the saints visit the earth and witches are banished.  Actually Halloween derives from the pre-christian festival of Samhain celebrated by bonfires and feasting when the cattle and pigs which could not be fed over the winter were slaughtered and the meat either roasted and eaten  or preserved as sausages and hams for the winter.
When I was young in the 1960s Halloween was a minor celebration for children. You may have a small party, make lamps out of turnips and tell ghost strories. As it coinicided with the apple season you may also play games bobbing for apples floating in buckets of water which you had to eat holding your hands behind you.
Halloween was always much bigger in America. After the success of the "Halloween" franchise of horror films in the 1970s and 80s shops started promoting it here and now it is a big commercial event.
American style Halloween features not apples but pumpkins which are made into lanterns. It also involves "Trick or Treating" where children go house to house challenging for a trick or treat. A trick should invole pulling a rude face but naughty children choose to egg your car or windows or pull up garden plants so in fact everyone gives a treat, usually some form of chocolate or sweet so the children collect bags full of goodies to eat. The children often dress up as witches or ghouls so they enjoy the whole process. Increasingly the shops use Halloween as an excuse to sell more and more; manufactured costumes and specially decorated cakes and sweets to say nothing of pumpkins which you could not buy at all 50 years ago.
When I went to the supermarket last week they had 3 aisles dedicated to Halloween merchandise mostly fancy dress.
The Teenagers and young adults have got in on the act and there are lots of costumes for them too which they wear either to parties at their homes or, more often, to themed events at nightclubs. Most of these actually took place last weekend although "trick or treating" is confined to the actual night.