Halloween 2013: Best Costumes Caught on Festival Eve; Google Celebrates with Creepy Doodle [PHOTOS]

With Halloween having finally arrived, children, adults and celebrities alike will hit the streets and attend parties in their best costumes - right from funny and creepy to pop culture attire. Many have been caught on camera in their best Halloween costumes on the eve of the festival.

Search engine giant Google also celebrates Halloween with a special creepy doodle featuring a witch. A click on the play button leads to witchery with spooky background sound.

Halloween is celebrated on 31 October every year. Also called "Hallowe'en", "All Hallows' Eve," and "All Saints' Eve," it is celebrated on the eve of All Hallows (or All Saints), a time Christians remember the dead and saints by conducting church services, prayers and fasting. However, the festival is celebrated by people from all walks of life irrespective of religion and region.

According to Halloween History website, Halloween originated in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain, which celebrates the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that on 31 October, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops.

The festival is celebrated with costume parties, making bonfire, trick-or-treating or guising, apple bobbing, making jack-o-lanterns, divination, playing pranks and visiting haunted houses.