Halloween=All Hallows' Eve.
The Samhain ("the end of summer") for the Celts represented the beginning of winter, the end of harvests, and the beginning of the Celtic New Year. It was the most important celebration of the ancient Celtic calendar.
For more than 2500 years, the period is associated with ghosts, spirits and death. For the Celts, it was a time when the veil separating the visible from the invisible world - the world of the living and the dead - became fainter. It was believed that the dead returned and that the gods and other beings of the underworld walked among the living.
For three days the ancestors were honored through offerings. In Ireland and in Celtic Scotland, it was customary to light fires at the top of the hills, the so-called "hallowe'en fires" (the "hallowe'en fires"). These fires, in honor of the deceased relatives, also served to purify the people and the earth, in order to ward off the demons, who were stronger at this time of year. In Scotland they were also used to ward off and destroy witches.
Several games and parties marked the event and were presided over by druid elders who also served as "intermediaries" between the living and the dead.
In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV instituted the All Saints' Day, dedicated to the martyrs and saints of the Catholic Church.
The Halloween we know today took shape between 1500 and 1800.
Bonfires became popular from Halloween and were used in the burning of the tares (which celebrated the end of the harvest at Samhain) as a symbol of the course to be followed by Christian souls in purgatory or to repel witchcraft and the Black Death.
Another custom was to predict the future - the date of death or the name of the future husband or wife.
One of the most characteristic habits involved children, who went from house to house singing rhymes or saying prayers to the souls of the dead. In exchange, they received good-luck cakes that represented the spirit of a person who had been released from purgatory.
During the festival, churches used to ring their bells, sometimes all night long. The practice was so uncomfortable that King Henry the Third and Queen Elizabeth tried to ban it, but they could not. This ritual continued, despite the regular fines imposed on those who did so.
Despite all this, the party became popular in the United States and now the celebration is celebrated by the use of costumes (especially by children and adolescents) and the famous phrase: "Trick or treat".
The Samhain ("the end of summer") for the Celts represented the beginning of winter, the end of harvests, and the beginning of the Celtic New Year. It was the most important celebration of the ancient Celtic calendar.
For more than 2500 years, the period is associated with ghosts, spirits and death. For the Celts, it was a time when the veil separating the visible from the invisible world - the world of the living and the dead - became fainter. It was believed that the dead returned and that the gods and other beings of the underworld walked among the living.
Several games and parties marked the event and were presided over by druid elders who also served as "intermediaries" between the living and the dead.
In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV instituted the All Saints' Day, dedicated to the martyrs and saints of the Catholic Church.
The Halloween we know today took shape between 1500 and 1800.
Bonfires became popular from Halloween and were used in the burning of the tares (which celebrated the end of the harvest at Samhain) as a symbol of the course to be followed by Christian souls in purgatory or to repel witchcraft and the Black Death.
Another custom was to predict the future - the date of death or the name of the future husband or wife.
One of the most characteristic habits involved children, who went from house to house singing rhymes or saying prayers to the souls of the dead. In exchange, they received good-luck cakes that represented the spirit of a person who had been released from purgatory.
During the festival, churches used to ring their bells, sometimes all night long. The practice was so uncomfortable that King Henry the Third and Queen Elizabeth tried to ban it, but they could not. This ritual continued, despite the regular fines imposed on those who did so.
Despite all this, the party became popular in the United States and now the celebration is celebrated by the use of costumes (especially by children and adolescents) and the famous phrase: "Trick or treat".
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