Many young and not so young are out in scary costumes tonight, celebrating Halloween, the feast of the dead.

Derived from a combination of All Saint’s Day, celebrated by Catholics for honouring saints, and All Hallow’s Eve, the history of Halloween has some roots in Catholicism but was further extended by Celtics, who celebrated New Year’s Eve on October 31 with a festival called Shamain.

The Celtics believed the boundaries between the dead and the living became blurry on the day and feared dead souls might play tricks on people.

The celebration has become popular in Malta only in recent years. Children celebrate the feast by knocking on doors and asking for treats using the phrase “trick or treat”.

The occupants are expected to treat the children with candy to prevent the children from performing some ‘trick’ or mischief.

Participants in Malta have this year been urged to use the trick or treat phrase in Maltese - ħlewwa jew dnewwa.

The video above was shot in Swieqi.

Video: Elisa Lemarchand