Halloween is on October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar. It was originallya paganholiday, honoring the dead. Halloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago.
All Hallows Eve is the evening before All Saints Day, which was created by Christians to convertpagans, and is celebrated on November 1st. The Catholic church honored saints on this designated day.
While there are many versions of the origins and old customs of Halloween, some remain consistentby all accounts. Different cultures view Halloween somewhat differently but traditional Halloween practices remain the same.
Halloween culture can be traced back to the Druids, a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain and Northern Europe. Roots lay in the feastof Samhain, which was annually on October 31st to honor the dead.
Samhain signifies "summers end" or November. Samhain was a harvest festival with huge sacred bonfires, marking the end of the Celtic year and beginning of a new one. Many of the practices involved in this celebration were fed on superstition.
The Celts believed the souls of the dead roamed the streets and villages at night. Since not all spirits were thought to be friendly, gifts and treats were left out to pacifythe evil and ensure next years crophotoshop/ target=_blank class=infotextkey>PS would be plentiful. This custom evolved into trick-or-treating.
halloween one story about jack, an irishman, who was not allowed into heaven because he was stingy with his money. so he was sent to hell. but down there he played tricks on the devil (satan), so he was kicked out of hell and made to walk the earth forever carrying a lantern.
well, irish children made jack's lanterns on october 31st from a large potato or turnip, hollowed out with the sides having holes and lit by little candles inside. and irish children would carry them as they went from house to house begging for food for the village halloween festival that honored the druid god muck olla. the irish name for these lanterns was jack with the lantern or jack of the lantern, abbreviated as jack-o'-lantern and now spelled jack-o-lantern. the traditional halloween you can read about in most books was just children's fun night. halloween celebrations would start in october in every elementary school. children would make halloween decorations, all kinds of orange-paper jack-o-lanterns. and from black paper you'd cut scary designs ---an evil witch with a pointed hat riding through the sky on a broomstick, maybe with black bats flying across the moon, and that meant bad luck. and of course black cats for more bad luck.
sometimes a black cat would ride away into the sky on the back of the witch's broom. and on halloween night we'd dress up in mom or dad's old shoes and clothes, put on a mask, and be ready to go outside. the little kids (children younger than we were) had to go with their mothers, but we older ones went together to neighbors' houses, ringing their doorbell and yelling, trick or treat! meaning, give us a treat (something to eat) or we'll play a trick on you! the people inside were supposed to come to the door and co*e to the door, or if someone chased us away? then we'd play a trick on them, usually taking a piece of soap and make marks on their windows. .and afterwards
we would go home and count who got the most candy. one popular teen-agers' halloween trick was to unroll a roll of toilet paper and throw it high into a tree again and again until the tree was all wrapped in the white paper. the paper would often stay in the tree for weeks until a heavy snow or rain washed it off. no real harm done, but it made a big mess of both the tree and the yard under it. one kind of halloween mischief.
Halloween is the eve of All Hallows Day. It means Mass to be held on the day of commemoration of all Hallows. Halloween is usually associated with spiritual things.
European tradition holds that Halloween is the closest time in the world of ghosts. Anoka, Minnesota, USA, is known as the "World Halloween Capital" and holds large-scale cruises every year to celebrate it.
Celtic believed that the Sun God helped them grow crops. But every year, the Sun God is attacked and imprisoned for six months by an evil force called Samhain.
The Celtics were terrified of the night of October 31, for there were evil spirits lurking everywhere. They set fire at home to let the evil spirits leave their homes. The Celtics would put on a terrible disguise to drive away the evil spirits. This is the prototype of Halloween.
Make trouble without giving candy. Halloween is a mysterious holiday in the eyes of children. The children put on colorful costumes, strange masks, put on a "Jack Lamp" and ran out to play.
A group of children dressed up as demons, carrying "Jack Lamp", ran to the neighbor's door and shouted, "Give money or give food."