What is Halloween???
Temperatures decrease as the kaleidoscope of summer flowers
and greenery changes to vivid and warm fall hues, which is the ideal excuse to
start wearing sweaters and jackets! It's also a good time to decorate your
house for Halloween inside and out and carve some gorgeous pumpkins. You've
come to the right place if you're looking for ideas for an evening of
family-friendly entertainment with Halloween just around the corner on October
31 (which is a Tuesday this year). You'll find many fantastic ideas to get into
the spirit of the "Spooktacular" season, from simple and gorgeous
costumes to spooky goodies and Halloween party activities! You could even find
a new favorite boozy Halloween beverage (for adults only).
Do you ever ponder the history of Halloween amidst all the
fun celebrations? For instance, is its history pagan or Christian, and what
does it mean? The answer is complicated and has also been influenced by secular
pop culture over time. So let's get started on some interesting facts about the
event and how its most well-known customs changed over time.
What does Halloween symbolize?
The origin of the modern English name Halloween can be found in medieval Christianity. The Middle and Old English terms meaning holy are where the word hallow comes from. It also has the noun meaning of saint. The day before All Hallows' Eve, when an evening mass was held, was All Hallows' Eve, and it was the Christian celebration we now know as All Saints' Day. Eventually, the term was abbreviated to Halloween.
Why is October 31 chosen as Halloween?
The earliest known source of modern secular Halloween customs is said to be the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain, which began the previous evening and took place on November 1 but actually occurred on October 31. Seasons were changing at a critical time of year, but more significantly, observers thought the veil between this world and the hereafter was particularly thin, allowing them to communicate with the dead. This is also where Halloween's "haunted" meanings come from in history.
As implied by the name's etymology, Halloween also has Christian origins. Christian martyrs and saints have been honored since the fourth century in Rome. When Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome to the saints in the early 7th century, he also inscribed All Saints' Day on the calendar, but the date was May 13. Pope Gregory III moved the date to November 1 in the following century when he erected a chapel to the saints in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope Gregory IV extended All Saints' Day to the international Christian calendar even another century later, bringing the holiday from Rome to churches all over the world.
All Saints' Day, a Christian holiday, was followed by All Hallows' Eve, or Halloween, on October 31 and All Souls' Day on November 2? a three-day celebration known as Hallowtide.
Is Halloween a Christian or pagan holiday?
Christian Halloween customs like jack-o-lanterns, bonfires, and costumes originated as the Roman celebration expanded to Christianized territories and blended with local cultures, especially Celtic groups that had previously observed Sahmain.
Did these regional Christian Halloween traditions develop from earlier paganism? Although Catholic sources deny this claim as lacking historical support, the majority of researchers concur that they did.
The lack of written records left by the ancient Celts, despite the existence of objects like a bronze calendar from the first century BCE that mentions Sahmain, is at the center of the debate. However, for the layperson who, in the words of academic Carolyn Emerick, "does not sit around reading folklore journals from the 1800s," it might be challenging to comprehend. Folklore studies also provide background for Sahmain.
"We arrive at this conclusion not by hard evidence like a written record because the inhabitants of Britain did not record things in writing during the pre-Christian era," writes Emerick in a piece about the history of the jack-o-lantern. By examining folk traditions like the jack-o'-lantern within the context and framework in which they are portrayed in the folklore and the greater folk culture, we assume that they have pagan origins.
The origins of Halloween customs......
Due to the Celts' polytheistic beliefs, the early pagan
feast of Samhain comprised numerous ritualistic procedures to establish a
connection with spirits. Even almost little is known about these events, many
people think the Celts burned jack-o-lanterns, feasted on special foods, and
dressed up for the occasion (granted, costumes were probably as simple as
animal hides).
As Christianity grew in power, the holiday's pagan overtones
gradually faded.
The Irish tradition of lighting jack-o-lanterns to ward off
bad spirits eventually acquired a Christian allegory: Stingy is a fictional
character. Although Jack outsmarts the Devil and escapes Hell, his wicked
behavior prevents him from entering Heaven. Instead, his spirit wanders the
Earth, illuminating his way with an ember contained in a radish carving.
Other ancient magical rituals changed into more jovial games and entertainment. For instance, the more jovial concept of telling the future was used in place of the fairly serious concept of connecting to the dead. On All Hallows' Eve, for instance, the game of "bob for apples" gained popularity as a form of fortune telling. Apples would be chosen to represent all of a woman's suitors, and the guider, apple? She would ultimately bite into would be said to indicate her future husband. In fact, young ladies in the 19th century had a huge (though somewhat superstitious) opportunity to meet men on Halloween.
This information was pulled from a poll. At their website, you might be able to discover the same material in a different format or more details.
Mirror gazing was another common All Hallows Eve custom in which participants sought to see their future selves by gazing into a mirror. There are also claims that earlier times saw the distribution of favors resembling fortune cookies. The letters were folded and put into walnut shells after being written on pieces of paper in milk. The messages would magically emerge on the recipient's paper after the shells were heated over a fire, turning the milk just the right shade of brown.
Trick-or-treating and Halloween costumes in history........
"Souling," the custom of going door to door and exchanging prayers for the souls in purgatory for "soul cakes," a food resembling biscuits, is thought to have existed before trick-or-treating. (Technical note: Soul cakes were first consumed on November 2 in honor of All Souls' Day.) The custom also included dressing up, as seen by one account of souling in England that was published in 1886 and described kids in "fantastic costume."
The prayers were substituted with tricks in the Scottish tradition of guising, a secularized variant of souling. A spooky turn was added to the costumes when teenage Scots and Irish pranksters thought of frightening their neighbors.
This eventually developed into the custom of trick-or-treating in the US. In order to protect their kids from holiday pranks, families would give them treats in the early to mid-1900s, when the candy-grabbing idea became popular.
The History of Halloween in America.......
Even while Halloween is still widely celebrated in America, it nearly never crossed the Atlantic. The Puritans refrained from celebrating the feast because of its pagan origins. The American colonial Halloween celebrations that did occur included sizable public gatherings when ghost stories, music, dancing, and singing were all performed.
The holiday did not become ingrained in the national zeitgeist until the second half of the 19th century when Irish and Scottish immigrants started to immigrate to America in greater numbers. The bulk of (candy-loving, costume-wearing) people in North America are thought to have observed Halloween by the early 20th century.
Our Halloween holiday customs are still developing today. Some people dress up their cars in frightening tailgate fashion for communal trunk-or-treat events, which are frequently hosted in school or church parking lots, rather than trick-or-treating home to house. In response to a popular campaign to shift Halloween, National Trick-or-Treat Day was established on the final Saturday in October 2019. However, Halloween continues to be observed on October 31, and local organizers determine whether and how towns will observe the new National Trick-or-Treat Day.
The only spooky spirits we'll be talking about on October 31
this year will be the witch and ghost costumes our pals are sporting. Instead,
we'll all be eating our favorite treats and admiring our neighbors' Halloween
decorations.