More than two thousand years ago, the Christian Church in Europe set November 1 as "the day of saints in the world". "Hallow" means saint. It is said that Celtic people living in Ireland, Scotland and other places have moved the festival forward one day since 500 BC, that is, October 31.
They think it's the day when summer officially ends, that is, the beginning of new year and the beginning of severe winter. At that time, it was believed that the dead soul of the old man would return to his former residence on this day to search for the living spirit in the living man, so as to regenerate, and this was the only hope that the man could obtain regeneration after death.
The living people are afraid of the souls of the dead to seize life, so people put out the fire and candle light on this day, so that the souls of the dead can not find the living people, and they dress up as ghosts to scare the souls of the dead away. After that, they will light up the fire and candles again and start a new year's life.
Halloween is actually a celebration of autumn, just like may day is a celebration of spring. Druid, the priest of ancient Gaul, Britain and Ireland, had a grand festival to celebrate autumn, which lasted from midnight on October 31 to November 1 the next day.
They believed that on that night their great God of death, Saman, summoned all the ghosts of those who had died that year, and those evil spirits would be punished by being entrusted as animals.
Of course, as long as we think of this kind of ghost party, it is enough to frighten the simple minded fools at that time. So they set fire to the sky and watched the evil spirits closely. That's the beginning of the idea that witches and ghosts are everywhere on Halloween. So far, in some isolated parts of Europe, some people believe that this is true.
中文:
两千多年前,欧洲的基督教会把11月1日定为“天下圣徒之日”。“Hallow”即圣徒之意。传说自公元前五百年,居住在爱尔兰、苏格兰等地的凯尔特人把这节日往前移了一天,即10月31日。他们认为该日是夏天正式结束的日子,也就是新年伊始,严酷的冬天开始的一天。那时人们相信,故人的亡魂会在这一天回到故居地在活人身上找寻生灵,借此再生,而且这是人在死后能获得再生的唯一希望。
而活人则惧怕死人的魂灵来夺生,于是人们就在这一天熄掉炉火、烛光,让死人的魂灵无法找到活人,又把自己打扮成妖魔鬼怪把死人的魂灵吓走。之后,他们又会把火种、烛光重新燃起,开始新的一年的生活。
万圣节原本其实是赞美秋天的节日,就好像五月节是赞美春天一样。古代高卢、不列颠和爱尔兰的祭司——德鲁伊德有一个赞美秋天的盛大节日,从10月31日的午夜到次日11月1日,持续整整一天。
他们认为,在那天晚上他们伟大的死神——萨曼把那年死去人的鬼魂统统召来,这些恶鬼要受到托生为畜类的惩罚。当然,只要想到这种鬼魅的聚会,就足以令当时那些头脑简单的愚民胆战心惊了。于是他们点起冲天的篝火,并严密监视这些恶鬼。万圣节前夜到处有女巫和鬼魂的说法就是这么开始的。至今在欧洲某些与世隔绝的地区,还有人相信这是真的。