Halloween

Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?

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 (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.

The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with 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 Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.

The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.

Halloween was started by christians as the day that the portal from the dead and the living was open thus spreading doom to the living.

House on Haunted Hill was created on 1959-02-17.

No we don't celebrate Halloween. But we do have a very holy festival for our Ancestors and Dead Souls. In India we have a Festival name "Pitri Paksha" or "Pitar" or "Shraadh Paksha" which means a Period for Ancestors and Dead member of the family. This is a 15 days long festival generally falls on the English month August-September. During this festival we remember our Ancestors and on the first day we make a pair of foot print facing towards the house with the wheat flour on the front door of the house, which marks the arrival of the ancestors to the house, then the elders of the family offers food and water to them on a worship ceremony which takes 5 minutes daily. We do donate some charity on the name of our ancestors. We offer food to birds and animals also.we float Clay lamps on the river and Lakes to provide light to Anscestors. On the last day which falls on the new moon day, we prepare tasty food (vegetarian food) and after the regular worship we make again the foot prints at the main door but this time facing opposite to the house, marking the farewell of the ancestors. this is very calm and peaceful festival, but no sorrow and cry, because we believe death can take only the body but not the soul , the soul is immortal and our ancestor visit us every year. So Indians do this ceremony with a happy but peaceful mood. For us we believe, to gain happiness in our life we must have the blessings of our ancestors, and the dead souls are not scary to the Indian. They believe souls will never give you trouble until and unless you trouble them. Today, lots of Indians are staying in USA or other European countries and there are lot others who have returned to India from USA. Because of these people Halloween can become popular in India also. Some IT companies organise small party at their offices, on which people wear spooky dresses, they play some games and enjoy the treats of cakes, Candy and ice cream. In India one is free to celebrate any festival of their choice And the Indians who are staying in USA decorate their houses with colourful lights and Jack o Lanterns and Buy treats for the small spooky trick and treaters.

It might be a good idea to stay home and protect your own home and neighbors. Playing tricks and being mischievous could get you arrested or someone hurt. I protect my lawn every year and what i do is either pop out and scare someone away or spray them with a water gun. Its way more fun than destroying someone Else's property because if they did it to u, u wouldn't like it

To the best of my knowledge, basically, in the very old days, people would use turnips (used in Ireland and Scotland), potatoes, etc., to carve spooky faces in and supposedly scare off evil spirits. North American immigrants then realized pumpkins would do the job even better, as they are softer, larger and easier to carve than a turnip or potato.

Well for fright nights in west palm you can be at least 10 and up.But because Halloween horror nights are way more intense,you have to be at least 16 and up.I hope that answers your question!!

There is no Halloween commission, but trick-or-treating always happens on Halloween so it should be done on Sunday.

You be creative. Everybody makes there own costumes!

The ancient Celtic priests were the first to celebrate Halloween, and it was associated with the Celtic new year. It was believed that on the last night of their year (October 31), the Lord of Death, Samhain, allowed the souls of the dead to return home. Evil spirits, witches, ghosts and demons also roamed, but could be placated by a feast.

Ireland im so sure of that

Sadly no. The only full moon in October is on October 4. The next one come on November 2, 2 days after Halloween.

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the next full moon on Halloween is 2020.

Micheal Myers

Halloween is celebrated on October 31st each year.

Convincing her is a hard thing to do, and double as hard if she is against it from the beginning. A lot of times, they see having a crossdressing son as if they are losing their little boy but NOT gaining a little girl. I would first start with these questions then go to second set:

1) Does she already know?

2) Have you talked to her about it (not just assumed)?

3) Is it ok with her to do this when you are alone? when she is home? when other people are there too? In public? at school? in church?

4) Where is Dad in all this, how does he feel?

5) Is it likely she (or dad) might lose their job if it was found out? deaconship (or position) at church? social life/friends?

6) Have you purchased any clothing or makeup and been allowed to keep it? Out in the open in your room? Purchased it with her there?

If these are all positive then the next questions are simple:

1) Has she seen you dressed (and in makeup) and been ok with it?

2) Does the family have the money to buy these things? If not, do you have the money?

3) Have you considered getting her some items (perfume, clothes, jewelry) when you get yours? If you get her stuff when you get stuff, it can go a long way to making doing these 'girlie' things a happier experience.

Above all else, are you hurting so much you are willing to lose any relationship you have with her? If she's not so accepting, be prepared for heartache if you shove it in her face.

I wish all parents could just go "what? they're clothes, it's still my child" or " my son's gay, doesn't make him any less my son" But not all can or will; be careful.

Lighting a candle inside a carved pumpkin, or jack-o-lantern, was believed to keep away the evil spirits that came out on Halloween night. It was also believed that letting a fire die on Halloween would bring bad luck. Another superstition was that people who were born on Halloween could see, talk and interact with spirits.

In Ireland, a long, long time ago, on October 31, they would think demons and ghosts and such would be raised from hell and walk the earth. They also thought that the ghosts would harm us, which created the costume part of halloween. They thought these were disguises that we are also hell risen creatures. I hope that answers your question!

The Celts who lived 2,ooo years ago in the area that is now Ireland the united kingdom and northern France celebrated their new year on november1st this day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark cold winter a time often associated with death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year the boundary between the worlds of the living and dead became blurred. On the night of October 31st they celebrated samhain when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to the earth.

Its actually the Latern of Jack.

Its from an old Irish legend of a man called Stingy Jack who tricked the devil into keeping him out of hell. After he dies though Satan remembers him and wont let him into hell and he was too bad to go to heaven. But he is given a live coal. Jack puts the coal into a gourd fruit (turnips pumpkins ECT) to carry about as he wanders the earth.

The tradition of carving jack o laterns was a way of telling Stingy Jack he had best move on. The scary faces were devised later to frighten away other less savory ghosts.

trick or treat is what you say when someone opens their door to give little kids and grown adults candy on halloween. it means that ur asking them "trick or treat?"like if they want to trick you or give you a treat like candy. hopefully they will say treat so you get candy. i think candy is good for you. or else babies wouldn't have made halloween. the end i hope you liked it. thx biiiii sexal

Trick or treating in Texas is generally celebrated on October 31st.

Halloween is on October 31. It depends on your timezone.

Halloween is very popular in Ireland, where it originated, and is known in Irish as Oíche Shamhna (pron: ee-hah how-nah), literally "Samhain Night". Pre-Christian Celts had an autumn festival, Samhain (pronounced /ˈsˠaunʲ/from the Old Irish samain), "End of Summer", a pastoral and agricultural "fire festival" or feast, when the dead revisited the mortal world, and large communal bonfires would hence be lit to ward off evil spirits.

An old legend is that people dress up as monsters to frighten/keep away evil spirits. I would try dressing up as a fairy princess, the evil spirits will be afraid of you girlie-ness.