2. Origins
Halloween celebrates a lot of things, including the lives of people
who aren't with us anymore.
The history of Halloween is not entirely a clear one.
Many hundreds of years ago, a people called the Celts lived in
Europe and on the British Isles. The Celts believed that the
souls of the dead visited Earth on the last day of October. They
had a festival in honor of these souls of the dead, and they called
it Samhain.
In time, the Roman Empire conquered the Celts and took over
some of their beliefs as well. This included Samhain. The Romans
combined it with their own festivals. And since the Roman Empire
spread across a great part of the known world, the idea that the
souls of the dead visited Earth on the last day of October spread
far and wide. Many ideas from the Roman days still survive in the
United States and in other Western countries. Halloween is one of
them .
3. Origins
The name Halloween
In the 8th Century, the Catholic Church declared November 1 to be
All Saints' Day.
And the mass that the Catholic Church celebrated on November 1
was calle
Allhallowmas. This meant "mass of all the It was commonly called "All
Hallows' Day."
And somewhere along the line, the night before became known as
Allhallowe'en, which
was short for "evening before All Hallows' Day." It was then
shortened to what we now
call it, Halloween.
One last question: Why do people dress up as ghosts, goblins,
vampires, and other scary
4. traditions
in the United Kingdom
In some parts of Britain Hallowe'en in the past was known as Mischief
Night. It was a
night for mischief making. People would take the doors off their
hinges on this night.
In England it is said that elves road on the backs of the villagers'
cats. The cats had fun
but the villagers did not and would lock their cats up so that the
elves could not catch
them.
Children were told not to sit in the circles of yellow and white
flowers were fairies have
danced as they may be stolen by the fairies. It was also bad to sit
under the hawthorn
tree because the fairies loved to dance on them and if they saw them
their tempers
5. traditions
in the United Kingdom
In some parts of England turnip Lanterns are place on gateposts to
protect
homes from the spirits.
In England Halloween was nicknamed, Nutcracker Night or Snap Apple
Night.
Families would sit before a great fire in the hearth,They told stories and
played
holiday games. It was an evening of great fun and merriment.
The Tradition of begging for food soon was replaced with souling or Soul
Caking. The idea was for children to go from door to door asking for money
to
give to the poor and a soul cake to have for themselves. Every cake they
would
receive, the children would say a prayer for the souls of the dead.
Soul cakes were called many different names throughout England such as
Saumas or soul mass cakes which were dark fruitcakes, another cake was
covered in caraway seeds and made into a bun.
6. traditions
in USA
In the United States trick-or-treaters are welcomed by
placing lighted
pumpkins known as jack-o'-lanterns in their windows.
The North American tradition of trick or treat comes from
the original idea
that you must be kind to dead ancestors or they will play a
trick on you.
Neopagans of North America honor their ancestors on
October 31. It was
once believed that on this night any souls who had not yet
passed into the
7. superstitions
The three days between 31st October and 2nd November see
pagan and
Christian celebrations intertwined in a fascinating way and
is a perfect
example of superstition struggling with religious belief.
Currently, it is widely thought that Halloween originated as
a pagan Celtic
festival of the dead related to the Irish and Scottish
Samhain, but there is
no evidence that it was connected with the dead in preChristian times.
