Witches and pumpkins vs. saints and crosses

The Bishop of Peterborough, the Venerable Donald Allister, wants to take the horror out of Halloween by encouraging British children to dress up as saints instead of witches and to cut crosses, not scary faces, into pumpkins.

But like King Canute, who tried to stop the rising tide, the bishop seems to have given himself an impossible task.

Halloween is the eve of All Saints' Day, on which Christians celebrate their traditions, but it is also one of the most commercial events in the year and the third most profitable trading period for British supermarkets after Christmas and Easter. Sales of costumes and confectionary have almost trebled at Tesco since 2005. Sainsbury's has seen a similar trend. Halloween is big business, and it's getting bigger.