Halloween
Fall, the prettiest season of the year. It marks the end of a hot and humid summer with the trees turning beautiful colors such as yellow, orange, and red. It's also the season of Halloween. A fun celebration that people young and old can participate in. Do you think Halloween is just some "thing" made up from the candy and costume companies?
Well your wrong.
This holiday has been alive since the days of the Druid priests, and the Celts.
Halloween Origin
November 1st marked the beginning of the new Celtic year. It was time that they moved the livestock from pasture to home, and made their last harvests before winter came. This was a big deal to the people, but nothing was bigger than their festival of "Samhain" (either pronounced Sam-Hane(present day) or Sah-Ween). The festival of Samhain was to celebrate the passage of the dead. It was thought that this was the one and only night of the year that the dead could walk the earth for one last time. The next day, November 1st, was the "Day of the Dead" this was when all the dead from the year would finally make their passage from this world to the next. Some people feared that the dead would remain on the earth, especially any evil spirits. To keep this from happening, they thought that scaring them to the next world would be best. People would light bonfires, dress in costume, make sacrifices, eat from the harvest, and dance crazy. Even though they were scaring away the spirits of their loved ones, they left tokens of love on their doorsteps. Things that the dead loved while they were alive.
These practices still live on, even after harsh "Christianization" took place all over Europe. The Christian missionaries forced their religion upon anyone, and everything. They tried their best to stomp out anything that had to do with occultism, witchery, Satanism, or anything that didn't believe in the one and only god of the Christian faith. They saw the festival of Samhain as satanic. They felt that their dancing in scary costume was paying respect to Lucifer himself. The people of these days finally hid their beliefs in fear that they may be hurt or their families might be killed. Samhain was cut down to "All Hallows Eve", a night to only celebrate (Christian like) respect to the dead. The festival of "Samhain" was kept under raps, until the Irish imigrated to America. Here they found no religeous persicution, and taught other cultures the ways of "Samhain", now known as "Halloween".
I think that everyone should just learn to have fun on Halloween! If you don't believe in all the witchcraft and everything that seems to come with it... it is still fun to dress up and get free candy! JUST HAVE FUN!
TRICK OR TREAT