Celts Informative Speech

First is the history of Halloween all according to a 2017 article from LiveScience by Benjamin Radford. Around 2,000 years ago in the United Kingdom Ireland, and the northern part of France the people called the Celts started this holiday. They called it Samhain back then instead of Halloween. November 1st marked their new year which resulted in them celebrating on October 31st. The New Year brought wintertime which to them meant death. On the night before winter which was October 31st, they believe that the spirits of the Dead came back. They wore costumes, put on bonfires, burned crops and sacrificed animals. When the Romans

The holiday season is among us. Halloween begins in the fall when the leaves start to change colors and fall of the trees. Christmas begins in winter when the snow hits the ground and the weather gets mighty cold. Halloween is when the spookier things come out. When most people think of Halloween they think of pumpkins and candy. Christmas is a time for giving gifts and being with family. Christmas is usually associated with Santa Clause and his worker elves. Although to most people these holidays may seem very different, there are also some similarities between the two. These differences and similarities can be seen in the dressing up, the celebrations, and the giving.

The fear of Halloween can stem from a dislike or fear of the holiday's history. The root word of samhainophobia is Samhain, which is a Celtic word meaning summer’s end. They celebrated Samhain with huge bonfires where crops and animals were sacrificed. The Celts believed that on Samhain the veil between the land of the living and dead was thin, which allowed for ghost, spirits, and the devil himself to pass through to the land of the living. It was also believed the Druids-the Celts priest-could predict the future on Samhain. The Celts wore costumes both as disguises and for performing the sacrifices at the bonfires. Eventually Rome conquered the

The catholic, mexican holiday, Day of the Dead and the very westernized holiday Halloween may seem very alike with their traditions and themes, but in retrospect, they are very different and have very different origins. Halloween and Day of the Dead happen at the same time, end of October and beginning of November. The background of these two holidays are very spiritual and they have an interesting story of how the Halloween and day of the dead was created. In this essay, I will be talking about the how Halloween and Day of the Dead are celebrated , the origins of Day of the Dead and Halloween, and decorations and celebrations of Day of the Dead and Halloween. Both Day of the Dead and Halloween deal with spooky traditions but they are very different than the stereotypical thought that they are just weird, scary holidays but after reading some background to these two holidays, many people realize there is a lot more to Halloween and Day of the Dead.

Halloween is believed to come from Celtic rituals. The Celts lived over 2000 years ago, and were found in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and France. The Celts celebrated

The catholic holiday, Day of the Dead and the holiday Halloween may seem very alike with their traditions and themes, but, they are very different and have very different origins. Halloween and Day of the Dead happen at the same time, end of October and beginning of November. The background of these two holidays are very spiritual and they have an interesting story of how the Halloween and day of the dead was created. In this essay, I will be talking about the how Halloween and Day of the Dead are celebrated , the origins of Day of the Dead and Halloween, and decorations and celebrations of Day of the Dead and Halloween. Both Day of the Dead and Halloween deal with spooky traditions but they are very different than the stereotypical thought that they are just weird, scary holidays but after reading some background to these two holidays, many people realize there is a lot more to Halloween and Day of the Dead.

La dia de los Muertos dates back to as early as the maya and aztec days, nearly 3,000 years ago. “The Aztecs didn’t fear death. They believed the way a person died determines their type of afterlife.” (Sarah Massey) Families place alters in their homes with favorite foods of the deceased people, sugar skulls with their name on it, special possessions of the loved ones, and Pan de Muerto (bread of the dead). On the altar are four special elements, water, wind, fire, and earth. Candles represent fire, food represents the earth. Halloween dates back to the celt days, about 2,000 years ago. They lived in what now is known as Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. They gathered on October 31st to celebrate the end of the harvest season. The celts believed that spirits roamed the earth on this night. Celts out food out for the spirits, this was the first form of trick or treating. Some dressed up as the dead to scare away the spirits. They carved turnips and put candles in them to make lanterns. This tradition continued when the immigrants came to America, but pumpkins were easier to find so they carved pumpkins. They swapped scary stories and had a big feast. Roman Catholics began to celebrate All Hallows’ day on November 1st, October 31st became All Hallows’ Eve, later shortened to

Several activities take place in the evening, but the most antipated one by far is going trick-or treating. Both children and adults dress up in costumes and walk from door to door collecting candy from their friends and neighbors. This ritual is from Samhain, an ancient Celtic gala that marked the end of the harvest season and the start of a new year. The Celts thought that the spirits left their world to interact with the living and so wore disgues and made food offerings to try to appease them. Bobbing for apples is another modern-day Halloween custom that has Celtic roots. Apples were the fruit of death. The Celts believed that the departed had to undergo two trials before they could make it to heaven. “The water ordeal is the familiar bobbing for apples, while the fire ordeal involves trying to take a bite out of an apple attached to a hanging stick which also bears a lit candle” (Kondratiev, par. 12). Playing this game attuned the dead to the needs of the living over the course of the following

Halloween is not only one of the most popular holidays, but is also one of the oldest, and can be dated back to about 2,000 years ago. It is also known to have started

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31st, or All Hallows Eve. It is a night of candy and fun for us, but started as a Scottish-Irish festival “[...] or two major gods—a sun god and a god of the dead (called Samhain), whose festival was held on November 1, the beginning of the Celtic New Year” (Bacon). The day after Halloween became “[...] a feast in honor of all the saints (All Hallows) was fixed on November 1, and in the 11th century November 2 was specified as All

Halloween was brought to America after the Irish fled from their hometowns during a famine.

When Christianity reached to the Europe, missioners attempted to change the religious practices of the Celtic people instead of trying to abolish these pagan customs. They wished to introduce ideas which reflected a Christian worldview. Halloween has since integrated a mixture of traditional practices from pagan cultures and Christian beliefs. Virtually all present Halloween traditions can be traced to the ancient Celtic practice of Samhain festival. Although halloween is a holiday of many mystic customs; each one has a story behind it.

Imagine if Halloween as we know it was entirely different? What if Halloween colors were green and yellow instead of orange and black? Well, orange and black are the main colors of Halloween because death is mostly represented through the color black. Like at a ceremony for a person who has passed on. Orange traditionally represents harvest where the Celtics lived, such as England, Scotland, Ireland, and northern France, is where the ancient Celtic people lived. On October 31st, or the eve of the Celtic’s new year, they thought that the world of the dead and the living merged. In 800 AD, Halloween we know today began, and Christians finally reached the Celts. The Christians sought out to Celts’ Samhain festival (pronounced

Halloween costumes at this time also reflected people's interest in other cultures. Scottish and Irish immigrants in the U.S. during the 18th and 19th centuries brought their Halloween folklore and traditions with them, which mixed in with the folklore, traditions and superstitions of other immigrants from Germany, Haiti and the Netherlands (“The History”).

Furthermore, there are many traditional rituals and superstitions associated with Halloween. Since the ancient Celts thought the nonliving roamed the earth, they created costumes out of animal pelts to ward off evil spirits. Fortunetelling and the utilization of large bonfires for sacrifices and purification were also early customs. After the Christianization of the holiday to commemorate saints and martyrs, the same festivities, bonfires, and guising remained, but October 31st was renamed All-Hallows Eve. This inevitably turned into Halloween. Similar to European traditions, America’s Halloween has also evolved throughout the years. Halloween’s recognition was originally restricted in colonial America due to its non-Christian beliefs and practices, and it was practiced at a more local level. According to an online source, “The first celebrations included ‘play parties,’ public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead and tell each other’s fortunes, dance, and sing” (“History of Halloween”). Festivities were akin to European traditions, but also included ghost stories and pranking. Beginning in the twentieth century, Halloween