Happy Halloween I - the Origin of Halloween

Author: Krista QQ(www.123giftfactory.com)

At first, let's talking about the origin of word "Halloween": a lot of nations on the eve of Halloween
will held a celebration gathering, which also be called "All Hallow E'en", "The Eve of All Hallows",
"Hallow e'en", or "The eve of All Saintas' Day ", and last evolved as a convention into "Halloween",
in Chinese we call it "the night of Halloween".

Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this
peculiar custom come from? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless
vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?

In the Medieval Ages, the central Europe had a history of demolishing heathens, but the sacrifice
ceremony before the New Year's night has never been reclined indeed, and just appeared in the
form of wizard. That's why in today's Hallowmas, we are still familiar with witch's brooms, black
cats and curses.

Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins going back thousands of years. The holiday
we know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures over the centuries. From
the Roman's Pomona Day, to the Celtic festival of Samhain, to the Christian holidays of All Saints
and All Souls Days.

Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts. The
Celts worshipped nature and had many gods, with the sun god as their favorite. It was "he" who
commanded their work and their rest times, and who made the earth beautiful and the crops grow.

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a
contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a
Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer
officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout
the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It
was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time
were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers
would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then
dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being
as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage
spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source,
the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to
have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history
debunk these stories as myth.

The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain
was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in
October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The
symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of
bobbing for apples on Halloween.

With regard to the origin of Halloween, the most referred legend viewed that Halloween
was came from the ancient Western European countries before the birth of Christ, which
mainly includes Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These ancient Western Europeans were also
called Celtic or Druids. The date of Celtic or Druids' New Year is on November 1, and in the
New Year's eve, young peoples in Druids were gathered in a team and worn various weird masks,
carried carved radish lamps and wandered between villages.

The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in
spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took
on a more ceremonial role.

Here is necessary to explain that the pumpkin lamp is a custom appeared lately, and there's
no pumpkin in ancient Western Europe. In fact, the Halloween is a ceremony that celebrated
for the autumn's harvest, and it also was said as a "ghost day", there's a legend said that the
souls of people who dead in the that year will return to visit the world, so live peoples should
let the souls returned see the scenery of their successful harvest and give them an abundant
feast. So all needfires and lamps were used to scare sway the souls of ghosts, and the same
time to illuminate the return road for the ghosts and guide them back.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/literature--articles/happy-halloween-i-the-origin-of-halloween-612358.html

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