October is the month notoriously associated with Hallowe’en. For those with children, it naturally conjures up thoughts of costumes, candy, pranking, skeletons, carving pumpkins and trick-or-treating but have you ever stopped to wonder about its origins and why we celebrate? One of the world’s oldest holidays started off very different than what we know it today.

It is widely believed that many Halloween traditions originated from ancient Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which celebrated their new year on November 1st. Samhain marked the end of summer and harvest and the beginning of winter, a time often associated with human death.

The child absorbs knowledge using no filter

The child is like a "sponge", which "absorbs" everything that is surrounding it. Already Dr. Maria Montessori warned us in the early 20th century that the children in their first six years of life are in an "absorbing" age.

But there is a slight difference in children up to 3 1⁄2 years and older children! The older the child is, the more it begins to question "why." Its brain is sufficiently developed to use a certain degree of discernment. These questions are an indication that cognitive development has initiated to a higher degree and it now starts to filter all the information the child gets. A toddler has not yet achieved this cognitive ability and takes in all the information without any filter. This unfiltered information according to neuro-science and psychologists - is programmed into the unconscious brain and even into the cell structures and form the first programs, patterns and impressions. This imbedded information will act from its level of unconsciousness influencing the persons entire life. To reprogram such information takes years. Therefore, parents and professionals should be very careful what kind of information is given to the child. It is also very important to think about the activities and life styles when children are around.