Halloween is a spooky time of year with tales of goblins, witches and ghosts. Even though this is true for today’s time, Halloween was not always about what goes bump in the night.

According to the History Channel’s Web site, Halloween originates from the former “All Souls Day,” which started in England. On this day, the poor people would go from door to door asking for “soul cakes.” Soul cakes were little sweet pastries. If they received a cake, the poor people would pray for the deceased members of that family. This tradition was called “going a-souling.”

Costumes also originated from the European and Celtic cultures. On Halloween, people wouldn’t go home because they believed ghosts came back to haunt the earth and to avoid being caught by a ghost, they wore masks to hide from them.

As Halloween became more popular throughout the nation, it also started to plummet. During the ’70s, Halloween and trick-or-treating took an ugly turn.

This was caused by rumors of mad men putting poison and razor blades in kid’s candy. In 1989, Joel Best, a professor at California State University, did a study on the tales of these so called “mad men.” He found 78 cases with two of them being deaths. The most famous incident was the O’Bryan murder case.

On Halloween, 1974, 8-year-old Timothy O’Bryan was killed by his father by being poisoned with cyanide laced Pixi-Stix. The other cases were accidental.

Since then, Halloween has been trying to redeem itself. Even though these tales may be an urban legend, Halloween can still be dangerous, especially for children. According to Paula Pater, a coordinator of Safe Kids of Chippewa Valley, younger kids are more excited about their surroundings, which cause them to run out into the streets.

Older kids are also at danger as well. According to the NY Daily News, a 12-year-old was shot and killed while trick-or-treating with his family last year.

Although Halloween has its bad reputation, there have been efforts to make this holiday more safe and fun. Some parents take their kids to malls or throughout the neighborhood themselves. Hospitals will also X-ray candy to make sure it is safe to eat.

APSU also has its share in making Halloween a safe holiday. G.H.O.S.T., Great Halloween Options for Safe Trick-or-Treating, is a SGA sponsored event at APSU during which APSU’s clubs and organizations set up booths outside between the library and the UC. The booths hand out candy to provide a safe alternative for children to trick-or-treat.

The booths also participate in other activities such as face painting and games. Another purpose for G.H.O.S.T. is to bring awareness to people of the different clubs and organizations at APSU.

The booths are set up in one area outside as opposed to being spread around campus to give the trick-or-treaters as well as parents a chance to familiarize themselves with all the organizations. There are 58 clubs and organizations at APSU, but not all of them participate in G.H.O.S.T.

Among the groups that participated in G.H.O.S.T. was Lambda Tau, an organization of about 25 years, that students whose focus is on Medical Technology are involved in.

Joanne Oliver, a medical technology senior involved in Lambda Tau, said they created their own “Mad Scientist Theme,” at their booth for G.H.O.S.T.

Lambda Tau created their booth to consist of mad scientist themed novelties such as spider webs.

Joanne said they created their booth to make people more aware of their medical technology organization.

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