IT has the Marmite effect on many people, they either love it or hate it, others just disregard it while a good number, especially children, look on Halloween as a bit of harmless fun.

Arguments arise over this day which preceeds the Christian feast day of All Saints and is held on what was a pagan festival in ancient times to mark a successful harvest.

No doubt that the people then called upon their gods to make their presence felt and probably invoked the spirits of their ancestors to make an appearance for they believed that such things were possible.

It appears that they dressed and painted themselves in various guises to observe their rituals which, it seems from many accounts, were in thanksgiving for the harvest which had been gathered in.

It is easy to see how legends have arisen from this practice which is buried in the mists of time and easy to see how fears of devil worship have grown from it with the thought that some such legends have become a reality among strange cults.

Is the whole thing dying out I wonder for there doesn't seem to be a great deal of mention about Halloween this year?

Witches’ and warlocks’ costumes for children are on sale and these are fun things spoiled by the gruesome masks which bring the dark side of the event to mind.

Thinking back to the fun time we had as children back in Scotland when we went ‘guising’ on Halloween to earn a few coppers towards buying sparklers for Guy Fawkes Night, and to the event in Louisiana where children accompanied by parents dress up and tour the neighbourhood streets to tell innocent little jokes in exchange for a few sweets, I am all for the fun side of Halloween.

So, duck for your apples, get your faces plastered with treacle by trying to bite into rotating scones and remember it is All Saints Eve and, if these benign spirits are about, then rest assured they are forces for good who wish you no harm!