History of Halloween |
Origins and History of Halloween
- Halloween is said to have originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.
- The Celts celebrates their New Year on 1 st, November.
- Halloween day signified the advent of winter and human death.
- According to the ancient belief, the worlds of the living and dead merged on Halloween day.
- The spirits of dead ancestors were believed to return on the night of October 31.
- The priests claimed to communicate with the dead for prophesies.
- Prophesies helped the Celtic community to survive through the long, severe winter.
Halloween Celebration in the Past History
- The festival of Samhain was celebrated by lighting bonfires and sacrificing crops and animals to Celtic deities.
- The people disguised as animals using animal heads and skins.
- Fortune telling was an important tradition in the Halloween celebrations.
- People re-lit their hearth fires from the sacred flames of the bonfire.
- Bonfire was believed to protect them during the harsh winter months.
- Christianity spread into the Celtic countries during the seventh century.
- Pope Boniface designated November 1 as All Saints’ Day.
- The holiday was also referred to as “All-Hallows”.
- The night of 31 October began to be called All-Hallows Eve and gradually came to be known as “Halloween”.
- November 2 was celebrated as All Souls Day to honor the dead.
- The 3 celebrations- the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls' were combined and named Hallowmas.
History of Halloween Costumes
- It was also considered that spirits of the dead would possess the bodies of alive people.
- People dressed up in ghoulish and scary costumes in order to deter the spirits from possessing their bodies.
- They would also extinguish their hearth fires in order to make their homes cold and unwelcoming to the spirits.
- People relit their home hearths only from the sacred flames of the Druidic fire.
- The Druidic fire was constantly kept burning at Usinach in the Middle of Ireland.
Halloween in America
- Halloween was introduced to America in the 1840’s by Irish immigrants.
- The Jack-o-lantern custom was an important part of Irish folklore.
- Jack was said to have trapped the Devil into scaling a tree and catching him up there.
- Jack was rejected entry into Heaven since he had tricked the Devil.
- The Devil is said to have given Jack a small ember for light and warmth.
- This fire was kept alight in a hollowed out turnip.
- The Irish settlers in America began to use pumpkins instead of turnips as they were more easily available.
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