Halloween has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints' Day, but is today largely a secular celebration. The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Eve, that is, the night before All Hallows Day.
October 31 was Samhain for the
ancient Celts--the death night of the old year. Druids
(priests) lit huge bonfires, while people dressed
as demons and witches paraded noisily through the
streets to frighten off the roving souls believed
to be seeking new homes for the new year.Halloween
means hallowed or holy evening.
Halloween has it's origins in
the British Isles, and with the Celts who lived there.
They celebrated a fall festival called Samhain (SAW-win).
This festival not only celebrated
the end of summer's growing season, it also marked
the beginning of the cold, hard, lean months to come.In
the 9th century, the Catholic Church named November
1st 'All Saint's Day'.
The night before, October 31,
was known as All Hollow's Eve. The people believed
the souls of the dead came to visit their former home
on this night.
Halloween is one of the world's oldest holidays, and
is still celebrated today in several countries around
the globe.
The autumn rite is commemorated in the
United Kingdom, although with a surprising and distinctive
British twist. In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain,
All Souls' Day, the third day of the three-day Hallowmas
observance, is the most important part of the celebration
for many people.
In Ireland and Canada, Halloween, which
was once a frightening and superstitious time of year,
is celebrated much as it is in the United States, with
trick-or-treating, costume parties, and fun for all
ages.
Now Hallowe'en has become one of the most widely celebrated
festivals on the contemporary North American calendar,
and it is not even officially a holiday. No day
off is given for Hallowe'en, no federal decree is proclaimed
establishing it as a national holiday. People just celebrate
it!
'Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world.'
William Shakespeare
The history of Halloween and fun pumpkin
facts!
The custom of trick or treating probably has
several origins. During Samhain, the Druids
believed that the dead would play tricks on
mankind and cause panic and destruction.
They had to be appeased, so country folk would
give the Druids food as they visited their homes.An
old Irish peasant practice called for going
door to door to collect money, breadcake, cheese,
eggs, butter, apples, etc., in preparation for
the festival of St. Columb Kill.
Also a ninth-century European custom called
souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early
Christians would walk from village to village
begging for
"soul cakes" made out of square pieces
of bread with currants.
The more soul cakes the beggars would receive,
the more prayers they would promise to say on
behalf of the dead relatives of the donors.
At the time, it was believed that the dead remained
in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer,
even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage
to heaven.
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 (pronounced sow-in), which
means "end of summer", the Celtic
New year.Did You Know...
A traditional food eaten on Halloween is barnbrack,
a kind of fruitcake that can be bought in stores
or baked at home. A muslin-wrapped treat is
baked inside the cake that, it is said, can
foretell the eater's future. If a ring is found,
it means that the person will soon be wed; a
piece of straw means that a prosperous year
is on its way.
Bobbing for Apples: When
the Celts were absorbed by the Roman Empire,
many rituals of Roman origin began. Among them
was the worship of Pomona, goddess of the harvest,
often portrayed sitting on a basket of fruits
and flowers.
Apples were the sacred fruit of the goddess,
and many games of divination involving them
entered the Samhain customs.
The Witch's Broomstick: The witch is a central symbol of Halloween.
The name comes from the Saxon wica, meaning
wise one. When setting out for a Sabbath, witches
rubbed a sacred ointment onto their skin. This
gave them a feeling of flying, and if they had
been fasting they felt even giddier. Some witches
rode on horseback, but poor witches went on
foot and carried a broom or a pole to aid in
vaulting over streams. In England when new witches
were initiated they were often blindfolded,
smeared with flying ointment and placed on a
broomstick. The ointment would confuse the mind,
speed up the pulse and numb the feet. When they
were told "You are flying over land and
sea," the witch took their word for it.
Jack-O-Lanterns:Irish
children used to carve out potatoes or turnips
and light them for their Halloween gatherings.
They commemorated Jack, a shifty Irish villain
so wicked that neither God nor the Devil wanted
him. Rejected by both the sacred and profane,
he wandered the world endlessly looking for
a place to rest, his only warmth a glittering
candle in a rotten potato. Read about Jack in
the 'Legend of the Jack-O-Lantern' short story.
Did You Know...
The Irish Potato Famine (1845-50) prompted over
700,000 people to immigrate to the Americas.
These immigrants brought with them their traditions
of Halloween and Jack o'Lanterns, but turnips
were not as readily available as back home.
They found the American pumpkin to be a more
than an adequate replacement. Today, the carved
pumpkin is perhaps the most famous icon of the
holiday.
Halloween Masquerade Mask: From earliest times people wore masks when droughts
or other disasters struck. They believed that
the demons who had brought their misfortune
upon them would become frightened off by the
hideous masks. Even after the festival of Samhain
had merged with Halloween, Europeans felt uneasy
at this time of the year. Food was stored in
preparation for the winter and the house was
snug and warm. The cold, envious ghosts were
outside, and people who went out after dark
often wore masks to keep from being recognised.
Pumpkin Facts
In
1584, after French explorer Jacques Cartier
explored the St. Lawrence region of North America,
he reported finding "gros melons."
The name was translated into English as "pompions,"
which has since evolved into the modern "pumpkin."
Pumpkins
have been grown in North America for five thousand
years. They are indigenous to the western hemisphere.
Pumpkins
are fruits. A pumpkin is a type of squash and
is a member of the gourd family (Cucurbitacae),
which include squash, cucumbers, gherkins, and
melons.
Pumpkin
seeds should be planted between the last week
of May and the middle of June. They take between
90 and 120 days to grow and are picked in October
when they are bright orange in color. Their
seeds can be saved to grow new pumpkins the
next year.
The
largest pumpkin ever grown is 1,810 pounds.
It was an Atlantic Giant grown by Chris Stevens of New Richmond, Wi. Stillwater, Minnesota. Record established October 9, 2010.
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