Moscow schools have been ordered to ban students from celebrating Halloween despite the widespread popularity of the imported festival to Russia.

Halloween is being forced underground because it "includes religious elements, the cult of death, the mockery of death," a spokesman for the city's education department Alexander Gavrilov said on Wednesday.

"It's not an attempt to block the celebration of this holiday completely, just in schools and colleges," he added.

Pumpkins and images of witches are widespread across Russia, with many bars organising special fancy dress parties, despite the efforts of the Kremlin, and especially the Russian Orthodox Church, to curb enthusiasm for non-native festivities.

"This is destructive for the minds and the spiritual and moral health of pupils," said Gavrilov.

In the UK, shoppers have been offered free apples in Hereford in the build up to Halloween, as part of a campaign launched by churches to make the feast of All Hallows - or Halloween - more fun and less frightening.

Each apple, locally produced, has a sticker on it, encouraging parents and others to visit a website offering a wide list of suggestions for enjoying the festival.

The campaign which began last year, aimed at increasing the range of goods available in supermarkets from "less grim" to more fun.

"A couple of years ago, the range of goods on offer were scary and ghoulish, giving the impression that Halloween is a frightening event with 'trick or treat' developing into a very anti-social form of behaviour," said Anni Holden, spokeswoman for the Church of England locally.

"After national discussions with the major retailers I am pleased to say that many have responded and after only a year of campaigning the range on offer is much wider."

Many organisations, from the police to groups for the elderly and child protection agencies, had begun to voice concerns about the more frightening aspects of the way celebrating Halloween had developed.

"We want kids to have a great Halloween, and we want to spark a wider public debate about the nature of our way of celebrating the date," said Holden. "We in the churches don't want to be killjoys but we believe that Halloween has the power to trivialise evil and can be portrayed as celebrating the triumph of evil over good - when in fact, as Christians, we hold that the opposite is true and that, in Christ, good conquers evil."

Many churches locally have organised alternative events for local children and young people to attend on 31 October which will stress the positive side of the feast which originates in All Hallows Eve or All Saints Eve, the night before the feast of All Saints on 1 November.