Throughout the U.S, significant holidays are celebrated, and for many, Halloween is one of the most favorable. Every year, 65% of Americans decorate their homes and offices for Halloween. Being such a unique holiday, many will make Halloween into a month long celebration by doing fall themed activities. This includes carving pumpkins, going to haunted houses, eating lots of candy, and bonfires. Halloween is one of the oldest, most celebrated holidays on Earth, and it brings out the inner child in all of us. First, we must look back to the birthplace of Halloween, Ireland. Halloween is believed to have originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to scare off spirits. This is why to this day, children and even adults wear costumes on Halloween. Whether its DIY or store bought, costumes are one of the main elements of Halloween. However, in the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as “All Saints’ Day”, a day to honor all of the celebrated saints and martyrs. Gregory kept some of the traditions of Samhain, and made the night before All Saint’s day “All Hallows’ Eve”, which later became known as Halloween. Perotta 2 Over time, Halloween evolved into a grand, community-based event centered around child-friendly activities, such as trick-or-treating. In many countries around the world, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people continue to usher in the winter season with gatherings,
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
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 is the point at which you cut Jack o' Lanterns out of pumpkins, design the house with a ghoulish topic, parties, and go trap or treating way to entryway wearing ensembles. Halloween is praised by both kids and grown-ups. Kids spruce up in
There’s smiles on everyone’s faces, cheers fill the air, and excitement is bursting from its seams. There are continuous ways and examples of how a celebration can change someone’s emotions, which can vary greatly. The anticipation and joy that celebrations bring are what make them renown and familiar with everyone throughout the entire world. Christmas and Halloween are just simple examples that bring the well-known reactions everyone looks forward to. Christmas is the so called, “best time of the year,” and Halloween is known to be, “spookified fun and unique.” Christmas and Halloween are similar and different in many ways including: their history, their traditions, and their meanings throughout cultures.
In recent years, this holiday has been gaining more and more attention in the US. However, the growth in popularity hasn’t necessarily led to a growth in understanding of the holiday. Some people still associate it with the incredibly commercialized Halloween, but it is much more meaningful than that for those that celebrate it.
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 night that children can dress and act like something they are not and allows them to travel around town receiving candy. Halloween allows the elderly a time to interact with children and gives people a break from normality. Even though the popularity of Hallowing is slimming,
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
LISTENER RELEVANCE: When we think of Halloween, we think of haunted houses, scary stories, and costumes of all sorts, candy, witches, black cats and more. But some of us have probably wondered where the history lies behind it all.
In early American history, Halloween was not celebrated due to the strong Christian heritage. Initially, it was practiced only in small Irish population, until thousands of Irish migrated to American soil and brought their tradition with them. Some regard Halloween as an Irish holiday with history in the Celtic festival. Traditional Halloween symbols we often see such as witches, fairies, pumpkins, black cats masks, batman, parties and pranks appeared in United States during the late 1800's. In 1848, millions of Irish emigrants poured into America as a result of the potato famine.
Irish immigrants moved to America. They told everybody about Hallow's Eve. The American people said they wanted to call it Halloween instead of hallow’s eve.
Halloween is an annual holiday celebrated on the 31st of October across the globe. The holiday originated ancient Celtic. Celts lived 2000 years ago in the areas which are now Ireland, Northern France, and the United Kingdom. They had a similar celebration called Samhain. Samhain was celebrated on the 1st of November rather than the 31st of October. Throughout the centuries Halloween traditions have changed drastically. To see what a difference Halloween is now to back in time we must examine what traditions and celebrations were done, secondly how we celebrate the famously known holiday and finally what people have against the celebrations and traditions to this day.
Let’s start off with the way each holiday emphasizes spirits. Halloween originated from the Celtic festival known as Samhain. During this festival, people made bonfires
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