The History of Halloween
Halloween is a traditional festival in the west, and the time is1October 3 1 Sunday night, also known as "Ghost Night" and "Ghost Festival". Since the second day of Ghost Festival is Halloween (or Saint's Day) in the western world, Ghost Night is called Halloween.
Halloween is a good time for children to indulge in fun. When night falls, the children put on colorful makeup clothes and various monster masks. Many children also carry a Jack-o-lantern. Jack lanterns are made by hollowing out pumpkins, inserting a small candle inside, and carving smiling eyes and a big mouth on the outside. After the candle is lit, people can easily see this naive smiling face carved on the melon from a far away place. In the moonlight, the children came to their neighbors and shouted "TRICK-OR-TREAT" in a threatening way. It means "trick or treat." If they are not entertained, naughty children will soap the handles on people's doors or color others and cats. These little pranks often make adults laugh and cry. Most families prepare candy in advance to entertain these naive little guests. Many adults dress themselves up as children or animals or various shapes, gather in the square, or swim in the streets in groups, singing and dancing and joking with each other.
The custom of "trick or treat" originated in Ireland. Hundreds of years ago, Irish farmers went door-to-door to get food before Halloween to prepare for the festival. For those who give generously, they sincerely bless them; For stingy people, they intimidate and curse.
Halloween used to be the most important festival in Ireland and Scotland. /kloc-At the end of 0/9 century, Irish immigrants brought the custom of Halloween to the United States, and later introduced it to Colombia and other Latin American countries. Today, Halloween is much more lively in America than in Britain. By then, many schools and families will organize colorful parties and entertainment activities for children. Children decorate the venue by themselves, decorate the environment, and then dress up as witches and pirates, perform various programs or play games under the orange light. One of the most popular games is "bite the apple". In the game, people let the apples float in a basin filled with water, and then let the children bite the apples with their mouths without hands. Whoever bites first will be the winner.
The generation of the word Halloween:
Many ethnic groups have celebration parties on Halloween, which are also called "All Hallow E'en", "The Eve of All Hallows", "Hallows e 'en" or "The eve of All Saintas'Day". In the end, the convention evolved into "Halloween", and the Chinese translation became Halloween night.
The legend of "trick or treat":
The custom that children dress up and ask for candy from house to house today is said to have originated in Ireland. Irish pagans in ancient Western Europe believed that on Halloween, ghosts would gather near their homes and receive banquets. Therefore, after the "banquet", the villagers dressed up as ghosts and spirits and wandered outside the village to guide the ghosts away to avoid evil spirits and disasters. At the same time, the villagers also pay attention to some fruits and other foods in the front yard and back yard, and feed the ghosts enough so as not to let them hurt people and animals or plunder other crops. Later, this custom continued, and it became a joke for children to make fun of the ungrateful family.
The origin of pumpkin lantern
As for the pumpkin lantern, there are at least two versions. One is that people hollowed out pumpkins and carved faces and lit candles to disperse ghosts; The other is that the ghost lit a candle, trying to trick people into following the ghost, so people carved a mocking face on the surface of the pumpkin to tease the ghost: Hum! Only a fool will be fooled by you. Legend has it that because Jack, an Irishman, was the first to use pumpkins, people also called Jack-O-Lantern as a grimace pumpkin lantern.
History and Customs of Halloween
Ghost falls on Halloween
Ghosts, masks, pumpkin lanterns, always mysterious Halloween. Just, how did all this come from?
Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate?
Q: Where does the word "Halloween" originally come from?
A: The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hallows Day” (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints.
Q: Why is Halloween celebrated, and how?
A: It was believed that during the period from October 3 1 through to November 1, The boundaries between our world and the world of the dead were weak, allowing spirits of the recently dead to cross over and the living.
In order to make themselves and their homes less inviting to these spirits, The ancient Celts (Celtic) stretched the fires in their homes to make them cold and undesirable, and built hug sacred bonfires, Where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts Wore Costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, They re-lit their heartFires from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter. They also dressed up in bizarre. Costs and parade through their villages causing destruction in order to scar off any recently separated souls who may be prowling for bodies to inhabit.
Q: How did the custom of "trick-or-treating" come into being?
A: 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 be received, The more practitioners 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 (the border of hell) for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.
The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The Practice, which was referred to as "going-a-souling" was eventfully taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.
Q: And what about the jack-o? Lantern (hollowing out the pumpkin and carving it into a human-shaped jack-o'-lantern) custom?
A: The jack-o? Lantern custom possibly comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, Who was infamous as a drunkard and trickster, Tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carvedan 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 tempthim again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
Accommodating to the folktale, after jack died, he was denied entry to heaven cause of his mischievous ways in life, 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. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
Q: But why people use pumpkins instead of turnips nowadays?
A: 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 and easier to carve out than turnips. So the jack-o? lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.