Halloween

Halloween Come From?

All Hallows Eve is actually the base of the origin of the name "Halloween" after the more commonly used phrase "All Hallows Eve" became "All Hallows Even" and then later it was shortened to Halloween in the 16th century. Throughout the years this holiday known as Halloween came to be something of a melting pot of ideas contributed by various cultures and belief systems. Europeans came together and meshed Celtic ideas, Catholic ideas and the Roman religious rituals in to one day of celebration that fell around the time that the Celtic tradition of Samhain fell, the turning of the seasons when the world became a darker place by virtue of the sun's position in the sky. Combining the Celtic idea of Samhain, the Catholic beliefs of All Saints Eve and All Souls Day, and the traditional Roman celebration of Parentalia created the holiday we now know as Halloween.

One such example of this is the wearing of costumes and scary masks during the night of Halloween. While many, particularly children, believe that the wearing of costumes is done in order to get candy and the "best" costume is the one that yields the most candy, very few actually understand the roots of wearing a costume on Halloween. Wearing costumes hailed from the Celtic tradition of Samhain and was done to scare away evil spirits that were thought to be able to pass through to our world during a time when the boundary between their world and ours became thinner due to the changing times of sun fall.

Among other Halloween traditions that hailed from older cultural traditions are the carving of jack-o-lanterns as mentioned above. Although the Celts used turnips to carve their jack-o-lanterns to scare away spirits because turnips were more readily available, traditionally more modern societies utilize pumpkins due to their availability at the time of the year as well as the fact that they create much larger carving surfaces. Part of the Jack-o-Lantern tradition arises from the fact that during this time of the year harvests are generally brought in and stockpiled to prevent damage from frost and provide food through the winter time. It is likely that since harvests were being brought in around the time of Halloween that the Celts spotted the opportunity to utilize some of their harvest to scare away the spirits that they were so superstitiously afraid of.

One of the biggest factors of Halloween that many people often question is the concept of monsters, ghosts and demons. While these factors generally have their roots in the theory of the Celts that evil spirits would cross in to the world during the latter half of the year,

Where evil spirits used to be connected with spirituality for the Celts the idea of monsters and ghosts became much more appealing to the societies of today that vary widely in their religious beliefs and cultural traditions. Over the years the idea of Halloween began to focus not on the religious aspect of lost souls and evil spirits but more on the media portrayal of evil spirits, ghosts and monsters. The tradition of scaring away the evil spirits became a tradition of dressing up like the most evil spirit and rather than trying to scare away spirits, today's trick or treaters are more often than not trying to scare each other.

Well trick or treating actually dates all the way back to the middle ages. During the middle ages in Ireland and England before All Souls Day poor people would seek money by knocking on the door of the rich and offering prayers for the dead on All Souls Day in return for money or food.

It was the combination of this tradition and the Celtic tradition of dressing to ward off evil spirits that resulted in trick or treating. Over the years trick or treating went from being a way to provide sustenance to a family who could not afford food to being a way for children to obtain candy in return for their efforts at dressing in fearful Halloween costumes. It is believed that trick or treating of this sort made its appearance in the 1930's.

It didnt start in america, Its an english pagan festival and dates back to before christ.

The 48 hour period from October 31st through November 2nd was known as the Vigil of Samhain and is a sacred holiday. It is the Celtic new year and also the last harvest of the year. It was said that during this time the fabric between this world and the next was at its weakest, spirits and faeries were abroad, and even the bravest folks were scared into staying indoors at night.

In the likelihood that ghosts exist, they generally wouldn't wear anything new -- they are physically transparent and cannot wear new apparel or accessories.

Halloween is an innocuous method of indoctrinating children into the spiritual world. They dress in costumes, get a 'safe scare', and meet ghosts and witches. They also learn to get 'treats' for threatening to 'trick' the homeowner. I believe that it was originally a Christian vigil event to herald the feast day of all the saints, which is November 1st.

No. The most decorated US holiday would be Christmas.

They scare little kids like you.

Um, Excuse me, Dude who wrote that!!! Yah, you are wrong, because technically you have to be at least 13 to be on wikki answers and by my chart below, it shows they are NOT kids, so too bad! Do NOT listen to him!!

1-5=Toddler

6-8 =Kid

9-12= Tween

13-19= Teen

20-29= Young Adult

30-65= Adult

65-123= Senior

123-1,200 = Young Vampire

1,201- 9,999,999= Old Vampire

1,000,000,000,000,0000- 900,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000= Zombie

technically vampires are not real so they do nothing

Christmas has been celebrated, as a Christian holiday, since the early middle ages. It succeeded pagan celebrations held previously, which marked the period of the return of longer days (Dec. 21 or 22 being the Winter solstice, in other words offering the shortest daylight of the year).

Celebrations were much more modest in these days and not in the form they have nowadays.

86 PERCENT

40-50 dollars per household. Not including decorations.

No, it is not.

There is an Irish myth about a man named Jack who pestered the devil.

As the legend goes, when Jack died God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the tricks Jack had played on him, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

Because people once believed that on Halloween, ghosts of the dead returned to earth, they would carve scary faces into potatoes, turnips and beets and place them in their windows to ward off evil spirits such as the mythical Jack.

Ireland used Turnips as "Jack "O" Lanterns"

Spider

Halloween can't really be celebrated religiously, unless you count neopaganism as religion.

The name Halloween refers to the evening of October 31-Hallow for holy, and een, just meaning EVE. We talk about HALLOWED ground or holy ground, the same word. But we sometimes think of this feast as Unholy and with good reason.

The word Halloweenis first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows'-Even("evening"), that is, the night before All Hallows' Day.[9] Although the phrase All Hallows' is found in Old English (ealra hālgena mæssedæg, mass-day of all saints), All-Hallows-Evenis itself not attested until 1556.[9]

Hallow Evening, which is the eve of All Saints Day on November 1.

On Halloween, Michael and Elliott dress E.T. as a ghost so they can sneak it out of the house.

Brew

cape

casket

warlock

werewolf

appartition

The essential Halloween Jack-O'-Lantern comes from a nineteenth century Irish folktale about a corrupt and wicked turnip farmer named Jack who trapped and caught the Devil. In exchange for release, he made a deal in which the Devil promised to never take his soul. When Jack finally died, his life had been way too sinful for heaven and the Devil couldn't take him. So he found himself in limbo, wandering the dark afterworld alone. When he cried out he had no light, the Devil tossed him an ember from hell that would not burn out. Jack carved a turnip, put the ember inside and continued to wander aimlessly, seeking a final resting place. He became known as Jack-O'-Lantern.

If you don't go with an adult then you should come back home at 11:00 to 11:30 for your one safety!!! be careful Halloween can be dangerous!!!

Halloween is actually spelled Hallowe'en. This means All Hallow's Even. Even means Evening so it is All Hallow's Evening.