Halloween, an American celebration..?
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| A Witch flying on her broom at a full moon night... |
Halloween's
History
Origins of Halloween
Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids (Celtic priests) to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To
commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the
people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic
deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically
consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each
other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their
hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from
the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
By
43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic
territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled
the Celtic lands, two festivals
of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic
celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late
October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the
dead. The second was a day to honour Pomona, the Roman goddess
of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the
incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the
tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practised today
on Halloween.
On
May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in
honour of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All
Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory III
(731–741) later expanded the festival to include all saints as well
as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.
By the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into
Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the
older Celtic rites. In 1000 A.D., the church would make November 2
All Souls' Day, a day to honour the dead. It is widely believed today
that the church was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the
dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. All Souls Day was
celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and
dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints
Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from
Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night
before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion,
began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
Read more
about Halloween's History 
Jack O’Lantern : The Legend of "Stingy Jack"
People have been making jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish legend about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavoury figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."
In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries carried the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they went to the United States. They soon found that, pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack-o'-lanterns.
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| A Ghost collecting sweets in a pumpkin |
Apple
bobbing Game
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| Apple Bobbing Game |
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| Halloween Costumes |
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| Halloween Masks |
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| Trick or Treat Tradition |
Trick
or Treat?
In North America, trick or treat has been a customary Halloween tradition since at least the early 1950s. Home-owners wishing to participate in it sometimes decorate their private entrances with artificial spider webs, plastic skeletons and jack-o-lanterns. Some rather reluctant home-owners would simply leave the sweets in bowls on the porch, others might be more participative and would even ask an effort from the children in order to provide them with sweets. In the more recent years, however, the practice has spread to almost any house within a neighbourhood being visited by children, including senior residences and condominiums.
The tradition of going from door to door receiving food already existed in Great Britain and Ireland in the form of "souling", where children and poor people would sing and say prayers for the dead in return for cakes. Guising—children disguised in costumes going from door to door for food and coins—also predates trick or treat, and is recorded in Scotland at Halloween in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit and money. While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish, the North American custom of saying "trick or treat" has recently become common. The activity is prevalent in the united States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Puerto Rico, and northwest and central Mexico. In the latter, this practice is called calaverita (Spanish for "little skull"), and instead of "trick or treat", the children ask ¿Me da mi calaverita? ("Can you give me my little skull?"); where a calaverita is a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.
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| A Zombie or Evil Spirit |
Do you like reading terrifying tales? If so... why don't you share a spooky story with your friends tonight? You may need to use a dictionary to help you with the vocabulary. Do you manage to scare your friends with your tale? Choose a story and click on the title to read: Spooky Stories
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| A Haunted House |
Halloween around the world
Although Halloween is often seen as a predominantly American celebration, you’ll be surprised to know that many countries around the world also celebrate Halloween. Many have their own unique traditions.
Read more about Halloween around the world
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