Culture Notes Everyone knows a little about Halloween…but what does this strange word actually mean? Halloween comes from All Hallows Eve: in the old church calendar, 1st November was celebrated as All Hallows Day, the day for paying respect to the spirits of dead ancestors, so the day before this, 31st October, was All Hallows Eve. (In the same way, the day before Christmas Day is Christmas Eve, and New Year’s Eve is the day before New Year’s Day.) It was believed that on this night, the spirits of the dead could come back to the earth…Today,