In these days, they thought that bad things always came with the long dark winter nights, so they built fires which they danced around.They also performed rituals to keep out evil.There were many people who believed that there were ghosts everywhere in winter.Villagers,whose beliefs were very simple, thought that if they wore scary costumes and masks after they left their homes after dark,the spooks and monsters that roamed around at night would not recognise them.They also left bowls of foot outside their houses for these invisible ghouls,thinking this would stop them from trying to get in.Today,the British continue to celebrate this festival,which is now called Halloween,on 31st October.They do this by dressing up,wearing masks and putting candles inside lanterns made of pumpkins. They leave the lanterns outside to frighten of witches and ghosts,just as people in the past did,but today it is just for fun.