Kids of all ages will crowd the island’s streets tonight looking to fill their bags, sacks and even pillow cases with candy, using that age-old rhyme: “trick or treat smell my feet, give me something good to eat. Happy Halloween!”

While it is a fun time of the year, it is important safety is not overlooked.

Police are calling on parents and adults to accompany children tonight, to watch out for dogs and remember to trick-or-treat in familiar areas.

Police will also be on the road to ensure peace and safety throughout the island during this spooky time of the year.

Halloween is when Americans don costumes and try their best to scare the wits out of others, while children travel from house-to-house gathering up an annual supply of sweets and treats.

While Halloween is traditionally a spooky day — where the ghouls and ghosts come out — some of this year’s most popular kids’ costumes are not very spooky. Hot selling costumes in local stores include every type of princess you can imagine, witches, angels, fairies, Spiderman, Batman, characters from Cars, Bumblebee (from Transformers), Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Many schools have been hosting their own individual Halloween events during school hours but tonight is the most-looked forward to Halloween event for kids (and even adults).

Some businesses and local groups are holding special Halloween gatherings.

Blue Sky Communications is hosting a costume contest where everyone is invited to show up in your best, worst or scariest costume and draw from a horror box. You will either get a trick or a treat.  If you have no costume, a $10 purchase is required. It starts at 12 noon.

The American Samoa Helping Hands Early Intervention Program will host its 3rd Annual Truck or Treat today. It’s a drive through trick or treat event that closes October’s Disabilities Awareness Month. The three-hour event not only celebrates Halloween in a safe and fun way but also promotes disabilities awareness.

The Calvary Chapel is also hosting its annual Halloween carnival under the blue and white tent near the Veterans Stadium in Ili’ili. Admission is $2 and starts around 4 p.m.

Today ends the five-day Spirit Week at Matafao Elementary School with prizes for individual dress-up and classroom door competitions. Samoana High school also ends its Halloween Spirit Week today.

Halloween spirit for grown ups is alive and well today and tonight.

GHC Reid & Company, Ltd. is holding a Halloween Treat in conjunction with Night Hawk Club in Ili’ili. They will present live in concert the “Bro-Sounds” tonight and Saturday night.

While the Island Pride Car Club is sponsoring a Halloween Beer Bust for 21 year olds and up only at the Maliu Mai Beach Resort tonight. You can call Ena for more info at 258-9296.

Businesses such as Makisi Home Improvement Center, Transpac, KS Mart, ASTCA and others are holding a variety of Halloween sales.

And don’t get spooked, if you walk into one of our local businesses where workers dress up in costumes in the spirit of Halloween. As in years past, places such as banks, retails stores and government offices will be showing their Halloween spirit.

Halloween came from the Celts, the ancient ancestors of the modern-day Irish. What now is treated lightly and in fun had serious origins in 500 B.C.

Each Oct. 31, ‘Samhain’ was celebrated as a way to give thanks for a successful harvest and the start of a new year. The Celts also believed that this was the time when all who had died during the previous year selected a new body to inhabit in order to secure a successful afterlife, according to the Samoa News research team and archives.

So to make their homes inhospitable to spirits, the Celts extinguished fires. Clad in ghoulish garb, they paraded through town creating mayhem to drive away the spirits.

The name “Halloween” is a corruption of the Catholic All Hallows’ Eve, a translated pagan ritual into an All Saints observance Nov. 1. Halloween came to America with the Irish fleeing the potato famine in 1846.

Here are some Halloween Safety Tips from Children’s Safety Zone:

— Carry a flashlight.

— Walk, don’t run.

— Stay on Sidewalks. If no sidewalk, walk on the left side of the road facing traffic.

— Stay in familiar neighborhoods.

— Carry only flexible knives, swords or other props.

— Wear clothing with reflective markings or tape.

— Approach only houses that are lit.

— Stay away from and don’t pet animals you don’t know.

Parents

— Ideally, young children of any age should be accompanied by an adult.

— Make your child eat dinner before setting out.

— If you buy a costume, look for one made of flame-retardant material.

— You should know where they’re going.

— Look at the treat wrapping carefully and toss out anything that looks suspect.

Homeowners

— Pets get frightened on Halloween. Put them up to protect them from cars or inadvertently biting a trick-or-treater.

— If you do use candles, place the pumpkin well away from where trick-or-treaters will be walking or standing.

— Make sure paper or cloth yard decorations won’t be blown into a flaming candle.

— Healthy food alternatives for trick-or-treaters include single-serve boxes of cereal, packaged fruit rolls, mini boxes of raisins and single-serve packets of low-fat popcorn that can be microwaved later.

— Non-food treats: plastic rings, pencils, stickers, erasers, coins.

Samoa News wishes the children, parents and everyone a SPOOKYKOOL Halloween. Please make sure your safe and have fun.