WE didn’t have Halloween when I was a lad. We didn’t dress up as ghosts and go begging door to door.

The Americans taught us how to do that and turn what was originally a three-day Celtic pagan festival into a month-long marketing campaign.

It was originally called Samhuinn and was known as “a time of no-time.”

Philip Carr-Gomm, chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, says: “The Celts knew that there had to be a time when order and structure were abolished, when chaos could reign.

“And Samhuinn, was such a time.

“Time was abolished for the three days of this festival and people sure did crazy things.

“Men dressed as women and women as men.”

During these three nights, he says, the veil between this world and that of the ancestors was drawn aside.

He adds: “The Druid rites, therefore, were concerned with making contact with the spirits of the departed who were seen as sources of guidance and inspiration, rather than as sources of dread.

“And for those who were prepared, journeys could be made in safety to the other side.”

Then along came Christianity to adapt the festival and change the names of the days to Halloween, the evening before All Hallows Day, which is better known as All Saints Day (November 1) and All Souls Day (November 2).

A thousand years later the Americans – flush from conquering the world with Coca Cola and Big Macs – decided Halloween could be a money spinner as well.

They bullied parents into buying fancy dress costumes of a ghostly nature for their children and bullied all adults into stocking up on sweets to give to the fancy dressed children when they came knocking on the door trick or treating.

Oh yes, and they also found a new way of getting rid of pumpkins – a fruit or vegetable (the point is debatable) of little popularity here, cut out its fleshy innards and stick a candle inside.

Americans, it has to be said, do eat pumpkin pie, but then they eat all sorts of stuff.

Pumpkin is more normally used as animal feed and is recommended by American vets for dogs and cats with bowel problems. Enough said.

So this evening we will have visited upon us the modern imported tradition of Halloween from which it is impossible to hide on pain of being labelled spoil sport or Scrooge (to mix my festivals) and even I have stockpiled an amount of confection suitable for being dispensed to children.

Mind you, I may be out. I’ve been thinking about what the Chief Druid said about the veil being raised and the possibility of making return journeys to the other side.

I’m only surprised the Americans haven’t thought of it first as a new way to trace your ancestry.

Never mind going through census returns and church records – book a Halloween trip to visit your great great grandad and ask him face to face about your family roots.

Of course, you take your chances doing this.

He might just be out trick or treating himself – dressed as your great great grandma.