Halloween All You Need To Know
What is Halloween?
Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31, the eve of All Saints’ Day, a Western Christian feast, in many nations. It marks the start of the period of time set aside for honoring the deceased, including martyrs, saints, and all other departed souls.
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All Hallows Eve, and subsequently Halloween, was celebrated the previous evening. With time, Halloween changed to become a day filled with festivities, trick-or-treating, jack-o’-lantern carving, costume parties, and candy consumption.
The association between the living and the dead is a fundamental aspect of the human condition, and Halloween is one of the oldest traditions in the world. The holiday’s main theme: transformation was originally connected to the celebration, which arose from ancient customs that marked the change from summer to winter.
In reality, the Church itself was responsible for preserving the Samhain heritage in the West by conversion to Christianity it in the ninth century. This helped pagan religious customs in Northern Europe evolve into a global secular holiday that is now the second most popular and lucrative holiday of the year worldwide, after Christmas.
On this day, summer and the harvest came to an end, and the gloomy, chilly winter—a season typically linked to human mortality—began. The difference between the worlds of the living and the dead was said to become hazy on the eve of the new year by the Celts. They observed Samhain on the evening of October 31, a holiday commemorating the thought that the dead’s spirits had come back to life.
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Not only did the otherworldly spirits ruin crops and cause mischief, but the Celts believed that they also made it simpler for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to prophesy the future. During the long and gloomy winter, these prophecies provided much-needed solace to a people who relied only on the unpredictable natural world.
It is unclear how long ago the custom of leaving dishes of preference for the deceased began, but many other types of spirits, some of which have never taken on human form, could also make an appearance. Losing loved ones was expected and welcomed.
In remembrance of the occasion, the Druids constructed enormous hallowed bonfires around which the populace assembled to sacrifice animals and crops to the Celtic gods. During the festivities, the Celts dressed up in animal heads and hides and made an effort to predict each other’s futures.
What was the American Origin of Halloween?
The strict Protestant belief systems prevalent in colonial New England severely restricted Halloween celebrations. Halloween was a lot more popular in the southern colonies especially in Maryland. American culture began to shift around Halloween in the late 1800s, making it less about ghosts, tricks, and witchcraft and more about neighborhood get-togethers and camaraderie. Halloween parties, for adults and children alike, emerged as the most popular method to commemorate the holiday at the turn of the century. festivities that centered on games, seasonal cuisine, and festive attire.
What is Trick or Treat in Halloween ?
Trick-or-treating was also started between 1920 and 1950, after it had been abandoned for generations. A community could celebrate Halloween together for a fair price by trick-or-treating. Theoretically, giving little presents to the local kids could also help families avoid being the target of tricks.
And so was established a new American tradition that has only grown stronger. Nowadays, Halloween is the second-biggest commercial holiday in the United States after Christmas, with more than $5 billion spent on it by Americans each year.
Video on Halloween History
Source: Youtube
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