By Terry Echols

1) Take a flashlight with fresh batteries.

A flashlight will help guide the way even if there are streetlights in your neighborhood. Glow sticks are also popular and come in lots of different glowing colors. Or add reflective tape to your child's costume, shoes or flashlight.

2) Accept treats at the doorway only.

Children should never go inside a house when trick-or-treating.

3) Do not to eat any of treats until each piece has been inspected.

Home-made items should be thrown out. Gum, peanuts or hard candy should not be given to children under five because they are a choking hazard.

4) Stay on sidewalks.

Walk on the sidewalks and stay out of the street whenever possible. If it is not possible, walk on the left side of the road facing traffic. Obey all traffic signals.

5) Walk, don't run.

Walking is safer, and by not running children will be able to observe traffic more easily and each other.

6) Stay in groups and/or with parent.

Small children should remain with their parents, and older children should stay in their group in familiar neighborhoods only.

7) Know stop, drop and roll, and how to dial 911.

8) Provide your child with emergency identification.

Place your child's name, telephone number and address somewhere on their costume, clothing, or a piece of paper in their pocket.

9) Approach lit houses only.

Houses that are ready to receive Halloween trick-or-treaters should have their porch light on and/or a pumpkin lit up by the door. Never approach a house without its lights on.

Halloween is the 2nd largest holiday after Christmas in terms of dollars spent, accounting for over $5 billion in sales.

Halloween also is recognized as the 3rd biggest party day after New Year's and Super Bowl Sunday.

One quarter of the candy sold for the entire year is purchased around Halloween (between September and November 10)

It was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world and people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits.

Trick-or-treating is thought to have its origins in a European custom called souling where people would beg for "soul cakes."

Samhainophobia: Fear of Halloween

According to the folk tale, after a trickster named Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer becoming Jack's Lantern.

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