Compare And Contrast Halloween And Day Of The Dead

Skulls, ghost, masks, and skeletons are symbols seen every year during two famous holidays, Dias de los Muertos and Halloween. There are many people who think Dias de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is the same celebration as Halloween, just the Mexican Version. Is it though? By looking at the celebrations of Dias de los Muertos and Halloween, and their background, then comparing and contrasting each one, an obvious difference will be seen.

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

Halloween is a fun, worldwide holiday. Today, Halloween, for children, is going out onto the streets and roaming from house to house asking for, mainly, candy. For adults, Halloween could mean parties, or handing out things to the children, or spending time with family. A similar holiday to Halloween, Day of the Dead. Day of the Dead is mainly limited to hispanic culture, however it has started to spread in more recent years. During Day of the Dead families create altars to attract and guide loved ones to their home, and the afterlife. Día de los Muertos consists of many community-wide celebrations, and parties. During Day of the Dead many people will dress up as skeletons and parade the streets of their community. These holidays might

Introduction: Patrons of the season of Halloween spend over $2.5 billion dollars every year on candy, costumes, and decorations. Every year millions of kids get dressed up, knock on doors, and beg for candy. Have you ever wondered where this strange tradition originated? The three most important points of Halloween can be summed up by looking at its origins, how it came to include jack-o-lanterns and bobbing for apples, and how it is celebrated today with trick-or-treating and haunted houses.

Halloween and Dia de los Muertos have different ways to celebrate their holidays. First of all Halloween is only one day while the Day of the Dead is actually three days. Halloween takes place on October 31st which at night is when people trick or treat. The reason by trick or treating is from an old story that was told that you should go to house to house asking for goods to scare away the bad souls which started reflecting on all the scary decorations during the holiday. While the Day of the Dead is October 31st-November 2nd which all the days reflect on the people who passed on and to celebrate life. People respect and have a meal at their incense grave sites with the souls that are good and that are now passed on to a better place.

Dia de los Muertos and Halloween are alike in some ways, but they are mostly different. For instance, Dia de los Muertos celebrates death. The people in Mexico and Central America who celebrate it aren’t afraid of this part of life. Halloween on the other hand celebrates being scared of death. On Dia de los Muertos, the people celebrate their loved ones who have passed, by honoring them. The reasons that Dia de los Muertos and Halloween are different are the people celebrate death, honor their dead loved ones, and finally the use of food, colors and costumes.

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.

An analysis of the book “Day of the dead in the USA” by Regina M. Marchi revealed that to Latin Americans, death does not provoke fear but instead brings together family and friends to value life and each other while it lasts. The first chapter of the book gives a definition of what the Day of the Dead details, a historical background and different customs of celebrating this day in Central America and South America. The second chapter of the book moves onto specifically why Mexico is associated with the Day of the Dead and how they celerate this day. Then the third chapter of the book switches over to how the Day of the Dead is celebrated here in the United States. Finally, the fourth chapter goes into

Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a holiday that commemorates the family and its importance to human beings, both personally and culturally. Through various rituals, people honor their ancestors and those that have already passed on before them. The rituals that go on during this time are culturally rich practices that have been passed on for hundreds of years. Family members will go to graveyards to decorate relative’s graves with altars and tell fond stories of the deceased. Others will perform traditional dances or make quilts as tribute to their ancestors. Overall, Day of the Dead emphasizes the remembrance of loved ones and their significance to us through deeply embedded customs.

2) Support (Evidence) The celebration takes place at midnight on October 31st and goes on through November 1st and November 2nd. It is designed to honor the dead souls who, it is believed, return to their earthly homes on Halloween. Many families construct an altar to the dead in their homes to honor deceased relatives and decorate it with flowers, favorite foods and drinks of the departed (Markello). Some other decor are the widely known sugar skulls which represent the celebration of life and death. They can all be made differently in colorful and creative design combinations to personalize the skulls after the person they are made for. The intent of all this is to encourage visits by the souls, so the souls will provide protection, good luck, and wisdom to their families.

Day of the dead is celebrated on October 31- November 2 every year (Celebrate Day of the Dead). Day if the Dead is called Dia de los muertos, but it can also be called Dias de los muertos, because the holiday is spanned over more than one day (Celebrate Day of the Dead).

In different parts of the world, people are celebrating the Day of the Dead. In other parts of the world, people are celebrating Halloween. Both of these celebrations are a lot alike, and are a lot different.

O­ne obvious question about Halloween is, "What does the word itself mean?" The name is actually a shortened version of "All Hallows' Even," the eve of All Hallows' Day. "Hallow" is an Old English word for "holy person," and All Hallows' Day is simply another name for All Saints' Day, the day Catholics commemorate all the saints. At some point, people began referring to All Hallows' Even as "Hallowe'en" and then simply "Halloween."Following t­he Jewish tradition, Christians observe many holy days from sundown on one day until sundown on the following day. This is where we get the practice of celebrating Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, etc. The direct predecessor of modern-day Halloween is the festivity that began All Saints' Day, which started

Borrowing from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money. Over time this tradition turned in to today modern “trick or treating”. In the late 1800s, America turned Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, and witchcraft. As the centuries changed Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century (Kammen).

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