Lake Como, Italy has all the ingredients to make for the perfect holiday.

The carved pumkin (Jack-o’ latern) is the most commonly recognised symbol of Halloween, celebrated on the 31st October in many countries all around the world. Although its real origin is still debated, this tradition has its roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints' Day (mainly from Scotland and Ireland).

The religious celebration behind Halloween is “All Saints Day” that honours the saints and is a national holiday in most roman-catholic countries. A typical Italian sweet prepared for “All Saints Day” are “Le ossa dei morti” – the so called “bones of the dead”. These are specially made hard baked cookies in the shape of bones and contain nuts like almonds or hazelnuts. In some areas of Italy, pastry shops offer  “pane dei morti” or “fave dei morti”.

Black and orange are the two colours associated with Halloween which signify, darkness of night, autumn leaves and the orange of bonfires.  Many people celebrate Halloween by wearing scary costumes; ghosts, witches, skeletons and going out 'trick or treating' (known as guising in Scotland), decorating pumpkins watching horror movies, playing silly games like apple bobbing or going to costume parties.

In the last few years this tradition has become more popular in Italy and many supermarkets these days offer a great variety of Halloween related products from decorations to food. The “trick-or-treat” game is widely popular among the Italian youth and was translated into “dolcetto or scherzetto”, meaning “treat-or-joke”.

However you decide to celebrate this special day, Lakecomopages would like to wish everyone a nice holiday.