i am doing an informative speech on the history of halloween and i need an intro. We are supposed to open our speech with a quote, story, startiling fact, but i cant think to think of anything really interesting...

any suggestions? thanks!!

Start with describing Halloween night... the sounds, sight, smells, etc. Capture the audience and then lead in by asking a question about how that all started.

Why the children request candies ?

That is too much to post here, it would take pages and pages in excess of what YA allows space wise.

Here are some links if you really want to know the truth about this subject.

http://www.ucg.org/booklets/HH/halloween.asp

http://www.gnmagazine.org/radio/halloween.htm

http://www.cbcg.org/special_offer.htm

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.

The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

I am an Indian. So little detail will help.

Avoid the History Channel. It is full of rubbish, not history.

Hallowe'en is short for All Hallows Evening. Hallows is old English meaning "Holy" or "Saint". It is the evening of All Saints Day (with day counted from sun set to sun set making it is the evening before the day).

All Saints Day is a festival started about 1200 years ago by the Catholic Pope in Rome on November 1st as a time to celebrate all holy people who have died are are now, as Christians believe, with God. Later another day was added, November 2nd, called All Souls Day when people can remember and pray for everyone who has died.

This festival became very popular and spread all around Europe reaching The British Isles after about 50 years. The Irish, who had been Christians for 300 years, adopted the festival which replaced their existing one in the spring.

In the 16th century, some Christians, known as protestants, broke away from the Catholic church and formed various smaller churches some of which took a very anti-catholic position. One of these groups, the puritans, was very influential in the UK and USA. They were against Catholic festivals and tried to ban them. They attacked anyone who tried to continue the festivals calling them devil-worshippers, pagans, witches and the like. Just propaganda but it stuck.

This is why Americans and some British people celebrate Halloween as a time of witches, demons, ghosts and general nastiness - though they mostly don't actually believe in any of it - except for a few extreme Christian sects.

The festival of All Saints & All Souls is till a very important feast in many other countries like Mexico, Latin America, Spain, Italy, Philippines, Hungary, Sweden etc. where is remains a day to celebrate and pray for the dead.

What is the history of “Halloween”?
and how did the pumpkin tradition start?

Pagans celebrate holidays based on the earth - the two greatest being the solstices - the longest and shortest days of the year. The two 'smaller' holidays are those two days right in between. Samhain (Halloween) lies between the summer solstice and the winter solstice, and is regarded because the daylight hours are equal to the darkness hours. It also signals the end of summer and the beginning of the winter, and is therefor the New Year (or New Year's eve, as November 1st was actually the day). Hence, 'all Hallow's Eve'. (this dates back to Celts, Egyptians, pre-Spanish cultures and more)

It was also believed that because of the year's changing, the veil between the living and the dead was at it's thinnest (thinner closer to midnight) so that the dead of the last year were able to visit one last time, and the living could gaze into the future. One was would have obtained the most accurate readings in the tarot, tea leaves, etc.

The name Halloween was created by Christianity. As it was viewed by the church to be 'evil' to see the future, or try to do so, they allowed it only as a feast to the dead. Within the church, the only dead permitted to be celebrated were those hallowed (made holy) through doing 'God's' work. All of the scary bits have either been mis-translated or made up by the church to terrify non-believers to come to the church.

Various traditions still have those pagan roots
~candles symbolize torches lit to light the way back for deceased loved ones
~Jack-O-Lanterns were carried by travelers - light for their walk, and the scary face to frighten away the looming spirits that may be malicious.
~other things have developed through the years out of improper translations, like the image of the witch. Check out the second link below, another yahoo answer-er posted it in his response.