For us, Halloween is an important holiday. We celebrate the secular and spiritual parts of it.
We decorate the front of the house and DH is really into pumpkin carving, so we always does at least 2 - it takes him about a month to work out the designs and then hours to carve them. On Halloween night, we hand out candy to the neighborhood trick or treaters - we usually get about 20 kids or so coming around. Once the trick or treaters are gone, we sit up waiting for ghosts to show up :) We believe that the veil between our world and theirs is thin this time of year and that they can come through - Samhain/Dia de los Muertos beliefs. I've already got the alter set up - except for the fresh items I will get closer to Halloween. But the ancestor pictures are there, the candles, elemental symbols, etc. I'll put flowers and offerings the week before. Halloween night we light the candles and incense. If the weather is good we will make a bon fire and sit out in the backyard - if not, just hang out in the house. We drink wine, have snacks, share stories of those who have passed away, sit quietly and meditate - whatever strikes us as appropriate.
