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The name Hallowe'en is an abbreviation of All Hallows' Evening, the evening before All Hallows' Day; it is the evening before All Saints' Day. On this day, in pagan times, the dead were supposed to have freedom to return to the homesteads which they had inhabited while alive, and all superstitions, customs and magical practices of the occasion served the purpose of warding off the dead souls, or appeasing them so that the living could pass through the dangerous night and day unharmed. In Austria the custom has remained in the shape of almost universal, compulsive devotion to the dead carried out by ritualistic visiting of the graves. No fear is thus felt. In the United States the conscious connection with the dead is denied. The fear of the dead is displaced on to children, who plague their elders, demand tribute, and frighten us by masquerading as witches ghosts, fierce creatures or as the dead. The idenafication of our children with the dead works in two directions. In addition to fearing them as symbols of the dead, we also kill them and offer them as a sacrifice to the dead. This element of sacrifice is completely repressed.