Halloween In The History
Samhain is a holiday that celebrates the dark season of the Celtic year. Gallic people also celebrated this holiday; which was called "Samonios". Samonios has been replaced in Gallic countries by Christian celebrations.
Samhain was celebrated three days before November 1st and three days after and the origin of there was no carved pumpkin nor trick or treating. People had a lantern made out of a turnip. The celebration was strictly observed by the whole society and gave the opportunity to every barbarian to eat, drink and have fun.
Over the centuries, continental Europe converted to Christianity and abandoned Samonios in favour of All Saints Day and Samhain became All Hallow's Eve.
However, the Halloween that we currently celebrate has nothing in common with Samhain. Halloween and All Saints are still interrelated because Halloween means "The night before the feast of All Saints'. There was also "All Hallow's Day" which was our Continental all Saints Day.
All Hallow's Eve; which evolved during the Christianization of European populations, was imported in America by European colonists and the current Halloween holiday was created by the Irish emigrants.
If you're interested in learning which country does celebrate Halloween and what's the meaning of Halloween in other countries, read on :)
Oh and by the way, just click here to download a free Happy Halloween book that includes Halloween coloring pages, recipes, songs for your kids as well as a bunch of Halloween ideas for adults :)
Which Country Does Celebrate Halloween?
Halloween All Over The World
All countries don't celebrate Halloween the same way ; many countries don't celebrate Halloween and some only begin to make Halloween a festive day.France
French people think that this holiday is too commercial and while this country finally adopted Halloween in the late 1990s, it is now less appreciated. There are very few children ringing at the doors and asking for sweets.
Belgium
Halloween is not a traditional holiday; however, Belgians began to organize some parties and/or activities 10-15 years ago but it's hard to get more people to join this 24-hours fun as many of them still refuse to adopt it, preferring to celebrate their own Samhain-style holiday. Additionally, Belgians don't open their doors to unknown people - including children - and trick or treating is considered as begging.
England
English people celebrate Halloween just a few days before the Guy Fawkes Day (on November 5th) and adapted customs from Samhain; which are highly popular. These festivities are marked by torchlight parades where children use masks made from beets and pumpkins and associated apple games such as apple bobbing with Halloween.
Scotland
Scottish people practice their ancient pagan rites. Children wear costumes and cut scary faces into large rutabagas and place a candle inside them. They receive candy when they provide a nice entertainment to their neighbours.
IrelandTrick or treating originated in Ireland, so as usual, Irish children in disguise will enjoy the Halloween festivities, they will carry lanterns cut into large rutabagas. Children will be received by their neighbours with sweets and Irish houses will be decorated with Halloween lights.
Spain
Spanish people enjoy each kind of holidays and parties. Their kids will then enjoy receiving candies from their neighbours and adults will have the opportunity to have a Halloween party in each and every club. Spanish people also organize many Halloween parades.
Portugal
Portugal does not celebrate Halloween; Portuguese people celebrate the Day of the Dead by organizing feasts at the cemetery.
Italy
Some regions of Italy organize Halloween Events and it seems that the Italian children enjoy this holiday.
Other European countries
Other European cities and clubs organize commercial events for Halloween (mainly for tourists), newspapers publish articles dedicated to Halloween, but I am unsure that people really practice Halloween. There are very few information about Halloween festivities in Europe; especially Central and eastern Europe. They stick to their own All Saints Day and Day Of The Dead.
Oceania
Australia and New Zealand begin to enjoy Halloween.
North America
USA, Canada, and Quebec: Halloween is very much appreciated and I think that only some worldwide disaster should prevent these people to celebrate Halloween.
China
Since some years, there is a growing interest on the part of the Chinese population for western events: Chinese people enjoy Halloween parties.
Children Do Not Want Fairy Costumes For Halloween
Since many centuries, Belgians celebrated All Saints Day and the Day of the Dead on 1st and 2nd of November instead of Halloween and I wouldn't say those are funny topics to write about.While working in a school and having to deal with after school activities for kids and the writing of an Halloween costumes for kids related article, one day, I asked the chidlren what kind of Halloween costume they would like to wear on October 31st.
OMG! I was so disappointed. I mean, when I was a child, my favorite Carnival costumes were those of a princess, a baroness, Snow-White, etc. Boys were all dressed as Robin Hood, The prince of Arabian Nights, cow-boys, indians, musketeers...
But what kind of costume do the children of the 21st century like?
Here are some examples:
Sylvie, who's only 10 years old would like to wear a Scream's murderer costume (including the mask and the knife!) She enjoyed the movies so much!
Anaïs answer was the following one:
"I want to dress a rich witch costume, with a pointy hat, a black wig, a large hooked nose with a big button on it, long nails like claws and pointed shoes".
Agon hesitated between the Devil's costume: the same as in the bible, with a tail, a fork, horns... or a pirate costume.
"As Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean?"
"No, I want to be a skeleton-ghost-pirate."
Another one answered:
"I want to dress the Monster Mash costume, Madame".
The kid probably heard talking about the Monster Mash when he watched The Simpsons' Halloween show. I love the Monster Mash song but never saw the Monster Mash in person and I do not think that someone saw this monster and knows what kind of costume he dresses.
The youngest children interviewed want to dress a Superman or a Batman costume.
My greatest surprise was Cynthia's answer, whose nickname is Brutus because she is not a delicate young girl. Cynthia wants to wear the most beautiful princess costume.
So, the top 5 Children Halloween Costumes are:
60's and 70's Science Fiction Halloween Costume Ideas

A great number of high quality TV shows and movies like The Prisoner, The invaders, Marcus Welby MD, The Six Million Dollar Man, etc., have been brought to the screen during the sixties and the seventies.
These series are an infinite source of inspiration for anyone who is looking for a Halloween costume.
But the 60's and the 70's have been especially productive in science fiction accessible to the general public and in particular to the whole family. While there were films beforehand in science fiction, the 60's and the 70's made science fiction into a household genre and there were two specific series that helped get this done.
Whether you are looking for a great 60's or 70's Halloween costume, you should consider the science fiction genre of this period of time. Indeed, these two decades have been highly productive in intergalactic TV or movie series.
Star Treck Halloween Costumes

The first one of these series is Star Trek, the brainchild of Gene Roddenberry. Of course, Star Trek was famous for things like the first interracial kiss and the use of physics in a way that confused many people, but it was also very famous for the types of costumes worn by the crew of the memorable starship USS Enterprise.
For example, if you are a Star Trek captain from this time period, you would be wearing a uniform that involved a mustard top and black trousers. That kind of clothing will be immediately recognized by anyone who liked the Star Trek series.
Another great example, Star Trek was also renowned for "redshirt syndrome", in which a non-main character in a red shirt would beam down to a planet with the team and get killed.
This type of costume is surely highly original and easy to make at home and could earn you some laughs and cheers this upcoming Halloween.
Go Get your Halloween Costume Today!
No Halloween costume, no successful Halloween party!Here's a bunch of Halloween costume ideas for you to choose from :)
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Addams Family Halloween Costumes
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Hello and welcome to the Addams Family Halloween Costumes :) When I asked my friends what type of Halloween costume they would like to wear for the Halloween holiday, I discovered that Gothic black costumes are usually appreciated by the women who...
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The Simpsons Halloween Costumes
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For 21 years The Simpson's have made us laugh with their hilarious antics every week. 20 episodes of Simpson Halloween specials, called the "Treehouse of Horror", have aired and certainly prove Halloween is the Simpson family's fav...
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Scooby Doo Halloween Costumes
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I entered the elementary school at the beginning of the 1970s and at the time our country set Wednesday afternoons free rather than Thursdays and the Saturday morning school came to an end. This decision made us able to watch the series broadcast on...
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Grease Halloween Costumes
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USA, the fifties. Danny and Sandy met at Rydell High School. They had a puppy love last summer but Danny wouldn't admit it to anyone. Danny treats Sandy as a stranger and Sandy wants to get Danny's love back. She will spectacularly succeed o...
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Halloween Historical Costumes
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The 18th Century is the period between 1700 and 1799 in historical terms. In Halloween terms, it's a fabulous time period by reason of there are a wide variety uncommon costumes that can come from those 100 years. A great manner to start your think...
Star Wars Halloween Costumes

Star Trek was not the only science fiction series to get its start during these two decades. Indeed, another popular series of movies was created during this time frame: Star Wars.
Involving a form of energy called "The Force", many alien creatures as well as special effects generated by high technology, Star Wars was created by George Lucas and was a totally different style than Star Trek as well as the other science fiction series.
Star Wars' main characters are Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo and Darth Vader, which are an excellent basis to create an original costume.
A few other extremely famous characters are imperial soldiers in grey uniforms, storm troopers and starfighter pilots in orange-white uniforms that are also quickly recognizable.
Rubies Costume Star Wars Child's Hooded Jedi Robe, Small
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Clone Trooper Costume Child Standard Star Wars - Medium 8-10 md
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Star Wars Collectors Edition Stormtrooper Adult X-Large Costume
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Adults' Deluxe Star Wars Jedi Robe Costume
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Star Wars Princess Leia Deluxe Adult Costume
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Halloween Costume Ideas For Oversized Persons and/or Pregnant Women

Costume concepts are passably hard to come by for the category of overweight people or pregnant women, but that doesn't mean that you have to just shirk away from the holiday and do nothing. Ideas may be hard to find, but they are manageable and in case you be a little creative and humorous in your approach you will unquestionably get a lot of things that are worthwhile ideas finally.
For instance, as a pregnant woman why not just go to Halloween as a pregnant woman? This costume may be found by a few as a bit of a cop out, but you have to do something to it to actually turn it into a costume. Let's say you search in the magazines and see a famous person who is pregnant and then do your hair, make-up and clothes up to look like that celebrity, you can unquestionably have a lot of pleasure walking around the party all night and then playing like that celebrity for the delight of the other people at the party.

Animal costumes also make for effective ideas for persons that are sized largely. Any animal costume will do finally, but in case you feel like having a little humour with the occasion you can always go as an animal that people often use as an affront to plus sized persons. These animals include things like elephants and hippos and obviously when you tell them the story of your costume you can toss that in for good measure. Humour can get the better of a lot of bad situations in life and the Halloween costume idea is simply one of the manners in which that is manifested.
Finally, a last original Halloween costume idea for big sized people is to go to the party as a mobster. In all of the movies that deal with the crime syndicate there are constantly individuals in the meeting that are weighty and admitting you were to imitate one of those characters you would definitely win big on the evening. This original idea has the added benefit of simply requiring you to do your hair a certain manner and wear a suit and thus is a costume that can be completely homemade without you having to go out and buy anything.
Homemade Halloween Illuminations

Here is an almost free Halloween craft!
Paint small jars in black, white and orange.
Draw some Halloween shapes on them and insert a tea light candle in each jar.
For instance, paint a white jar, draw Scream murderer's eyes and mouth and voila, you have an original ghost light.
Place the Halloween candles on a black tray, insert mini pumpkins, maple berries and leaves, etc.
If you have bigger jars, you may paint them as well and pour in Christmas lights.
Program a Few Halloween Activities
Need ideas on the kind of activities to offer to your guests on Halloween night or simply want to turn on the Halloween atmosphere on your home?Here's a bunch of great Halloween lenses that might help you :)
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Halloween Desktop Wallpapers
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Operation Letters To Santa loves to share the wonderful things that are on our website. We have beautiful vintage Halloween desktop wallpapers that are absolutely free and our gift to you. There is nothing to download. Simply right-click on the imag...
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This Halloween - You're Invited To The Party!
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Having made quite a few Halloween Lenses and received a lot of support from other Squidoo Lensmasters I thought that this would be a nice way to feature various lensmasters and lenses! Let's first talk a little about Halloween! What is Halloween wi...
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Halloween Coloring Printables & Crafts
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This lens is filled with Halloween coloring book pages, Halloween posters and masks to color and Trick or Treat coloring pages for kids of all ages.. You'll love these Halloween Coloring collections featuring traditional pumpkins, skeletons, bla...
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Halloween Trivia Questions And Answers
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1. What rock star worked as a gravedigger before starting his musical career? A. Roy Orbison B. Billy Joel C. Mick Jaggar D. Rod Stewart 1. What famous rock star worked as a gravedigger before starting his musical career? D. Rod Stewart TBD: That wa...
Prepare your Halloween Party Well in Advance!
Here are a few useful lenses that will help you make the most of your Halloween party!-
Free Pumpkin Carving Patterns
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Is your Jack-o-lantern a simple grinning pumpkinhead? Turn him into something wild and creative with free pumpkin stencils you can find on the web. See the list of sites offering free stencils below, and learn some more about the history of jack-o-la...
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Halloween Monsters Are Amoung Us
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On Halloween Eve, you will probably organize or participate in a Halloween party and meet hordes of ghosts, zombies, witches, vampires and goblins. These scary creatures are the most popular Halloween party guests. But... what do we really know abo...
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Halloween Ghoulish Party Food Ideas
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Halloween simply wouldn't be the same if it weren't for the foods that people serve. It is a good opportunity to get creative with the foods that you serve at the party. As a matter of fact, the funniest part of eating on a Halloween party comes fro...
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Halloween Homemade Scary Decorations
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It is not essential to be a crafting expert to be able to make numerous wonderful Halloween decorations that will make your holiday joyful. Halloween evokes images of black cats, sinister witches, spooky specters and flying bats and you can recreate...
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Halloween Potluck Party Ideas
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Children favorite holidays are Saint Nicholas or Xmas, by reason of the gifts; they love Carnival because they're allowed to wear fancy clothes, enjoy parties and parades and they also love Halloween. Why do children enjoy Halloween? Adults con...
Did you Enjoy your Halloween Tour?
Did you like this lens? Did you found the information you were looking for?
If so, please let me know you were here by leaving a comment, your feebdack or your own Halloween monster stories below and, if you wish, rate the lens by clicking on the yellow stars on top of the page.
You may also want to recommend the lens to your friends, lensroll it or even favorite it...
Whatever you do, many thanks in advance :)
Anyone can leave a comment to this lens; however those are subject to approvement and any HTML is automatically removed :)

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- eloise-spleen eloise-spleen Nov 9, 2009 @ 12:10 pm
- Fantastic Lens! Very interesting. There's no Halloween in my country so I didn't know much about it beyond what I've seen in television and movies. Now I want to get a Star Trek costume and roam my neighborhood in search of candy. =D
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Nov 2, 2009 @ 9:07 am
- Thanks :)
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- CreativeArtist CreativeArtist Nov 1, 2009 @ 10:09 am
- Enjoyed reading the Halloween info. Lensrolled to my lens on Halloween canvas bags.
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Oct 27, 2009 @ 5:47 pm | in reply to charlino
- Happy Halloween to you too :)
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- charlino charlino Oct 27, 2009 @ 3:33 pm
- Happy Halloween!
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Oct 24, 2009 @ 2:50 am
- Thanks to the both of you!
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- mermaidlife mermaidlife Oct 23, 2009 @ 7:24 pm
- This is a very educational lens. I lensrolled it to my Mermaid Child Costume lens. Thanks.
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- CrazyPirate CrazyPirate Oct 19, 2009 @ 7:47 pm
- Shiver me timbers the pregant costume would be a scary for me if Me Special Lass decided to wear one this Halloween. Avast!
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Oct 18, 2009 @ 4:21 am
- Thank you so much for your comments :)
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- feliciasfavs feliciasfavs Oct 17, 2009 @ 6:03 pm
- Interesting to read all the info about Halloween.I take it for granted that we're of the very few that actually celebrate this holiday.
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- spunkyduckling spunkyduckling Oct 15, 2009 @ 11:34 am
- Totally awesome lens! Aww...I don't have halloween in my country. Would have been nice though. I do think there are a minority of children out there who will want fairy costumes. Those might be the ones who dislike anything unpleasant and prefer to have their focus on beauty and peace. Of course with the amount of peer pressure we can be sure that children will want to fit in rather than promote what they really want to, and it depends on the age of the child too.
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- jessicahoward jessicahoward Oct 7, 2009 @ 2:20 am
- It's like diwali in India, I want to participate in the celebration! nice presentation!
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Oct 4, 2009 @ 11:41 am | in reply to Snozzle
- I just wrote it differently so that no one get confused any more :)
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- Snozzle Snozzle Oct 4, 2009 @ 10:15 am
- Very interesting! I'm in England, don't know if I misunderstood, you but Guy Fawkes Day has nothing to do with Halloween. We do 'celebrate' Halloween though at the end of October. Great lens.
Mike.
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Sep 14, 2009 @ 9:28 am | in reply to CurePimples
- [in reply to BevsPaper] Thanks ladies :)
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- BevsPaper BevsPaper Sep 14, 2009 @ 8:16 am
- Great lens on the history of Halloween.
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- CurePimples CurePimples Sep 14, 2009 @ 3:19 am
- Awesome lens, Halloween is fun!
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Sep 3, 2009 @ 4:22 pm | in reply to stargazer00
- Thanks Stargazer :)
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- stargazer00 stargazer00 Sep 3, 2009 @ 12:22 pm
- Loved the Halloween history and the vintage Halloween images. Well done!
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Aug 31, 2009 @ 7:35 am | in reply to poutine
- Thanks Poutine and SeditionPirate :)
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- poutine poutine Aug 30, 2009 @ 10:57 am
- Very interesting lens about Halloween and I like all the
colorful pictures included.
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- Aug 28, 2009 @ 9:19 am
- Neat article : D Halloween isn't as big here in Asia, I wish it was though! It'll be so badass to see ghouls and vampires strutting around town!
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- thehomehope thehomehope Aug 25, 2009 @ 9:34 pm | in reply to skiesgreen
- Great lens.very informative,easy to read,full of life and spirit.
well done.
mss/uk
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Aug 22, 2009 @ 2:58 am | in reply to sharpturn
- Indeed! I am crazy about Halloween - changes a lot from the All Saints Day and Day of the Deads here in my country ;)
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- sharpturn sharpturn Aug 21, 2009 @ 6:27 am
- Hey! This is great!
Your a big fan of Halloween aren't you...lol
Everything I need to know is right here.
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- sandralynnsparks sandralynnsparks Aug 20, 2009 @ 6:09 pm
- Oh, I love it! Halloween is my soul...
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Aug 5, 2009 @ 5:23 pm | in reply to skiesgreen
- Thanks Skiesgreen :)
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- skiesgreen skiesgreen Aug 5, 2009 @ 5:11 pm
- Nice lens, well written and very informative. 5 stars
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- prosperity66 prosperity66 Jul 19, 2009 @ 3:12 am | in reply to WhiteOak50
- Thanks WhiteOak!
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- WhiteOak50 WhiteOak50 Jul 18, 2009 @ 2:01 pm
- Oh, Halloween (smiles) I love it so much! Great Lens!!
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