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Halloween
is celebrated in several
countries across the
globe. This word has
been derived from All
Hallows Eve, which
occurs on November 1.
The "All Hollows Day" or
"All Saints Day". In
Mexico, Latin America,
and Spain, All Souls'
Day, the third day of
the three-day
Hallowmas observance ,
is the most important
part of the celebration
for many people. In
Ireland and Canada,
Halloween, which was
once a frightening and
superstitious time of
year, is celebrated much
as it is in the United
States, with
trick-or-treating,
costume parties, and fun
for all ages.
People believed that the
souls of the dead come
back to earth to visit
their families or
friends. People began to
call November 1st as a
holy or "Hallowed" day.
It was to be called Al
Hallow's Day. Which was
later shortened to what
we know today as
Halloween. In the 5th
century BC, in Celtic
Ireland, summer
officially ended on
October 31. This was
called Samhain
pronounced sow-en). This
was the Celtic New Year.
The disembodied spirits
of everyone who had died
throughout the year
would return to seek
living bodies to possess
for the following year.
It was their aterlife or
Panati. On the night of
October 31, all those
living used to
extinguish fires in
their homes and make
them cold and
undesirable. They also
dressed in ghoulish
costumes and made noisy
parades as a way to
discourage and frighten
away these spirits.
As time passed by people
lost their faith in
supernatural
powers.....but despite
this people still
enjoyed dressing up as:
hobgoblins, ghosts, and
witches. This became
increasingly more
ceremonial.Then in
1840's Halloween
traditions were brought
to America by Irish
immigrants fleeing their
country's potato famine.
The favorite pranks in
New England included
tipping over outhouses
and unhinging fence
gates. 'Trick or treat'
is yet another practice
thats followed
extensively on this day.
As the centuries wore
on, people began
dressing as these
dreadful creatures and
performing antics in
exchange for offerings
of food and drink.This
practice, called mumming,
evolved into our present
trick or treating. To
this day, witches,
ghosts, and skeleton
figures of the dead are
among the favorite
disguises."
Trick-or-Treating is
believed to have
originated with a
ninth-century European
custom called "souling"
Irish children used to
carve out potatoes or
turnips and light them
for their Halloween
gatherings. They
commemorated Jack, a
shifty Irish villain so
wicked that neither God
nor the Devil wanted
him. Rejected by both
the sacred and profane,
he wandered the world
endlessly looking for a
place to rest, his only
warmth a glittering
candle in a rotten
turnip.
Pumpkin seeds should be
planted between the last
week of May and the
middle of June. They
take between 90 and 120
days to grow and are
picked in October when
they are bright orange
in color. Their seeds
can be saved to grow new
pumpkins the next year.
Halloween has grown out
of rituals of the Celts
celebrating a new year,
from Medieval prayer
rituals of Europeans,
and the Irish legend of
Jack O'Lantern. |
