| 21 October |
Halloween |
Today we will discuss the holiday of??Halloween. We all know about Halloween, or at least you should know about it. Halloween is a very fun time of year, even if they make horror movies about it. And just because horror movies come out around Halloween time?it doesn’t make Halloween any less fun, besides you get scared and have a great time all in one day. On?Halloween you can get candy, trick or treat and dress up in costumes. If you’re too old to trick or treat, give out candy or scare people instead. Believe me, both can be rewarding. But there is more to Halloween than jack- o- lanterns and getting candy, there’s also being scared and the horror movies. Anyway that’s beside the point.?In this post we will explore the history of Halloween.
Halloween has origins in a old Gaelic festival called Samhain which can be derived from the Old Irish meaning “summers end”. The Britons also had a similar festival, but I won’t go much into that, mainly because it doesn’t say that on Wikipedia who I am getting this information from and giving them and the person who wrote that page full credit. Now back to the history of Halloween. The Samhain celebration is thought to be a festival for the end of the “lighter half” and the beginning of the “darker half”. It could also be seen as the festival of the dead because on the Samhain the Gaels believed that spirits were thought to pass through into our world. The ancestors that were friendly were invited inside while the evil spirits were warded off with costumes and charms. Thus leading to disguising yourself as a evil spirit, which can be the reason we dress up in costumes.
Also, the term Halloween was called All Saints Day, which is now celebrated one day after Halloween. On Halloween the Celts would put a skeleton on their window sill to represent the departed or the dead. Originating in Europe the Celts carved the head in?any way they wanted to?out of a vegetable or an other food to ward off evil spirits. Now, have you ever wondered how the word jack- o- lantern came to be? It is thought that an old, drinking, gambling, farmer named Jack tricked the devil into climbing a tree and then trapped him by carving a cross into the trunk. So (naturally) the devil put a curse on Jack so that he can only walk? around with the only light he had, which was a candle inside a hollowed turnip. Pumpkins being easier to carve than turnips, we put candles inside the pumpkins which usually have scary or funny images on them so they can light up the night. Or wherever you are in the world whether it is day or night or nice and cozy in your home as long as you have a pumpkin there to make my point, it doesn’t really matter.
Halloween impacts a lot of religions and I?won’t take any point of view in this.? I celebrate Halloween the way I want to celebrate it and you celebrate it how you want to. I’m not trying to be rude or impolite, it’s just that you should celebrate Halloween how you want to. Now, onto?modern Halloween. We all like the candy, costumes? and pranks, but we haven’t gotten into the scary side of?Halloween. Most of us like a good scare once in a while and Halloween gets the job done. Whether it be the costumes or the movies, scary stories, haunted houses or rides, Halloween can get the job done. If you haven’t taken the time to appreciate how multi sided Halloween is, take that time now because Halloween can be fun, funny, scary,?surprising or a good history lesson. Just be thankful Halloween’s there.
