halloween history
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Trick or Treat?
What is your favorite
Halloween memory?
Halloween’s
Origin
During the Middle Ages (about 600 years
ago), the Roman Catholic Church at that time, decided to make the change-over from
pagan religion to Christianity a bit
easier, and therefore allowed the new
converts to maintain some of their pagan
feasts. It was agreed, however, that from
now on they would be celebrated as
"Christian" feats.
So instead of praying to their heathen gods, they would now pray to, and remember the deaths of saints. For this reason the church decided to
call November 1 the "Day of All Saints," and the
mass to be celebrated on that day "Alhallowmass."
In consequence of this, the evening prior to this day was named,
"All Hallowed Evening" which subsequently was abbreviated as
"Halloween." In spite of this effort to make
October 31 a "holy evening," all the old
customs continued to be practiced, and made this evening
anything BUT a holy evening!
In Mexico, they celebrate El Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the
Dead starting the evening of October 31st.
The Celtic festival of Samhain (sow-in) is
the basis for Halloween. Samhain,
All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian
times, signalizing the close of harvest and the initiation of the
winter season.
The Celts believed the souls of the dead visited the earth every October
31st.
The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the
spirit world to intermingle with the
living.
The day itself did not grow out of evil
practices. It grew out of the rituals of the Celts celebrating a
new year, and out of Medieval prayer
rituals of Europeans.
In the 1800’s, people started to have
Halloween parties called play parties.
Part of the celebrations
included costumes, fortune telling, and
games such as bobbing for apples.
In 1846, the potato famine in Ireland caused a flood of
immigrants to America. Merging
the American celebration with the
Irish celebration allowed for
Halloween to become a national
holiday.
It was during this time in which going
door-to-door and asking for money or food and dressing up in costumes became
popular.
At the turn of the century, cities were overcrowded and
Halloween marked the time to let off steam by playing practical jokes. By the 1930’s, things
had gotten out of hand and serious damage was
being done on Halloween. Trick or
treating was promoted as an alternative to
vandalism.
OtherNames
All Hallows Eve
SamhainAll Hallowtide
The Feast of the Dead
The Legend of the Jack-O-Lantern
A man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and a trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of the cross into 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
pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips.
Halloween Traditions• Witches – wicca; druid
worship• Ghosts & Fairies – Day of the
Dead• Cats – believed to be sacred
in Druid worship• Bonfires – Bone fires• Trick or Treat – Druid Worship
Fun Facts
A Candy corn
has 3.57 calories per kernel.
Halloween accounts for 75% of the annual
candy corn production cup of candy corn has fewer calories
than a cup of raisins.
“Hasmophobia" is the fear of ghosts.
"Samhainophobia" is the morbid fear of
Halloween.
festivities, as do 67 percent of adults.
Eighty-two percent of children take part in Halloween
Should a Christian celebrate Halloween?
• Exodus 22:18; Deut. 18:10-12
• Lev. 19:26, 31; 20:27; Is. 8:19
• Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8; 22:15
• 1 Cor. 10:23-33