Informative Essay On What Is The Reason Why Do Halloween

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.

Pa de muertos (bread of the dead - skull-molded bread), sugar coated pumpkins, or any most loved sustenance of the commended late companion/relative is given out in remembrance of the family. On Halloween, most kids go trick or treating, knocking at door to door looking for snacks to put in their goody bags to make them happy. However, on Day of the Dead the food is placed on the tombstone or grave sites of the loved ones within the family, showing how they still remember and

them. Part of the religion was a ceremony known as the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance was to “invoke

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 first costumes were bought in the 1930’s before that there were masquerade parties that were for adults and that was way before the children started to dress up. It never got that creepy until they started making movies based on werewolves, bloodthirsty vampires, and ghosts. With the increase of popularity, the children joined and that started some of the less frightening costumes.

The Ghost Dance religion was an answer to the domination of Native Americans. It was an attempt to make culture and to find a way to improve poverty and disease, all the reservation life of the Native Americans. The Ghost Dance originated among the Paiute Indians in 1870. The tide of the movement came in 1889 with a Paiute shaman Wovoka. Wovoka had a vision during a sun eclipse. In this vision he saw the second coming of Christ and received warning about the evils of white man. The messianic religion promised an apocalypse that would destroy the white man and the white guy. The earth then would be returned to the Native Americans.

The Ghost Dance was a religion or movement that combined Christianity and traditional Indian religion elements that served as a nonviolent form of resistance for Indians in the late nineteenth century. At the time, conditions were bad on Indian reservations and Native Americans needed something to give them hope or something to look forward too. So they created and turned to the Ghost Dance.

Ghost Dance was a Gathering of tribes to trade things and tell people about their religion, how to hunt, beliefs, and to exchange stuff. Some of the Natives Gathered at Wounded Knee Creek where about 300 Natives were shot down by the Seventh Cavalry. How the Ghost Dance started was by a man named Wovoka who had a vision that “the the earth would be covered with tons of new dirt, which would bury all the white people and get rid of them forever.¹” and the “fears were realized years earlier when the Arapahoes, Cheyennes and Sioux came together to defeat Custer.1” And Wovoka “preached peaceful coexistence and a strong work ethic and taught ceremonial songs and dances to resurrect dead Indians.1”

The Ghost Dance was a religious circle dance that’s meant “to bring hope” for the Indigenous people. They needed something to believe in because of the horrible conditions they were living in (poverty, hunger, and diseases) so they put their trust into Ghost dancing. It was said that performing the Ghost Dance ceremony would bring back their dead ancestors, return their plentiful buffalo herds and most importantly, eliminate the European settlers (Kerstetter, n.d.). The feeling of desolation spreading throughout the Native camps in the west made them grasp for any message of hope (Lesser, 2009).

The Ghost Dance was a tradition that originated in the late 1800’s, this dance was a spiritual movement performed by Native Americans on reservations who were in search of hope in a time of need; however the results weren’t what they expected.

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.

Also, in this period of time spiritualism was a very common thing and it was normal to see ghosts. This would sense because the ghosts that people have witnessed came back during special times like war, death, or even a happy time. Ghost also help comfort during difficult times. For example, I read on the internet that they help comfort during tough times and that could be why some ghosts came back while the Civil War was going on. In conclusion, people may think ghosts just come back to haunt or scare but they actually come back to help comfort you.

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”).

Another example of a cultures belief in ghosts is Ireland’s and Scotland’s (also known as the Celt’s) belief in Samhain or All Hallow’s Eve. Samhain is a festival that is celebrated from October 31st to November 2nd. Samhain is a time of the year that celebrates the last harvest before the winter comes, and is dedicated to the “Lord of the Dead” (Guiley 19). The Celt’s believe that the dead will come out of their final resting place and mess with the crops. Also, it is believed that communication with the dead is easier during Samhain. It is said that the veil that separates the living from the dead is at its thinnest during this time. The Lord of the Dead holds a sentencing of spirits, where if they were good they can exist in the form of a human, and if they were bad, the form of an animal. Offerings of food and drink are made to the Lord of the Dead so he would not be so severe in his sentencing. Many Celt’s would dress up on Samhain to confuse the spirits that were roaming around so they wouldn’t stop, but continue to pass them by (Guiley 19). This festival is still celebrated today as Halloween. Currently, Americans hold by some of the old traditions by dressing up and making offerings by handing out candy. Many Celt’s still hold beliefs in the old ways. Celt’s also believe in what is