Paganism In All Hallow's Day

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 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

Halloween is an appreciation of the afterlife and the survival after death. Literal meaning is the night before All Hallows' Day (aka All Saints' Day). Day of the Dead is the remembrance and celebration of friends and family who are dead.

Celebrated on October 31st, the festival of Halloween (also known as Samhain) includes dressing in costume, trick or treating, and decorating. Tracing back in history Halloween is considered to be one of America’s oldest holidays, and is still celebrated today. Halloween is believed to come from Celtic rituals. Celtics believed the cosmological myth of Saman (Lord of the Dead). Saman would call on the souls of the people that passed away that year to take them to the afterlife or underworld; the Celtic underworld identifies with the Christian Hell. In order for the spirits to believe they were on their own, the living would wear costumes and mask their identities, along with fairies, witches and demons. This functions as a cosmological myth because it provides a creation story and framework in which this universe occupies and includes many other realms of existence. Another tradition that followed was to give food to the Saman, to persuade him to be more tolerant while he judged the dead ancestors of the living, which he would chose to take to the underworld. In this essay I will further investigate what the origins of Halloween consist of and how it offers reasoning for trick-or-treating. Also I will examine how trick-or-treating, which is still continued today, is connected to ancient Celtic festivals.

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

These traditions were connected with the lower class at the time and so they were also connected with crime, rowdy behavior and other stereotypes the upper class believed about the poor. Of course people who were part of the upper class did not like this and by the 1870s they had turned Halloween into a holiday to make children into “good American citizens.” Halloween was now targeted towards children and because of that families were encouraged to celebrate it at home where food, games and other entertainment would have adult supervision. By doing this children were expected to understand the values society holds, while also learning about their proper gender roles. At this point we are able to start to see how Halloween became so heavily influenced by gender roles/stereotypes and how that led to the over-sexualized holiday it is now. Trick or treating and wearing Halloween costumes became popular in America around the 1920s and by the 1950s children’s costumes were extremely reflective of their sex. (Bannatyne.) Girls were dressed as princesses and angels while boys were army men, hobos and so on. However, as cute and adorable as this is or may have been, this creates a very thick line between genders. When that line is present it is alluding to children that

She rolls her eyes while my youngest son runs around the house in his pirate zombie costume. We have learned the origins of Halloween for years, some say it is the celebration of the dead, others say is the Wiccan practice, a pagan celebration. Add the urban myths about candy filled with glass, apples injected with poison, and you have the perfect recipe to keep your kids scarred for life.

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.

The decision to celebrate Halloween and other major holidays in school has been an issue for years. Some teachers say schools should celebrate Halloween because they can take advantage of the educational aspects of the holiday. Others say it is a waste of time because it takes away from the valuable education time needed for subjects like math or science. Personally, I agree with the latter because the American school system is extremely flawed. Our students are often one or two years behind countries like South Korea and Japan. Students need to spend more time on academics than holidays. Other religious groups might not feel comfortable celebrating Halloween as well. Another thing to consider is money. To celebrate Halloween, you need decorations,

Trick or treating is a very universal activity, and many people participate. One question that often comes up is, should Christians participate in Halloween? Some Christians believe that fellow believers should not participate in Halloween festivities at all. They believe that participating in Halloween is equivalent to supporting what can be considered an evil or demonic holiday. Other Christians believe that they can participate as long as everything they do is to glorify the kingdom of God and not the devil. Though it's understandable where some Christians came up with the conclusion that it is not okay to celebrate Halloween, due to the origin of the holiday. Most people do not entirely agree.

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).

Samhain was Christianized over the course of the ninth and tenth centuries. The Catholic Church created All Saints Day ( or All Hallows Day as it was originally called) in 835 to supercede the pagan rites associated with the festival. They chose to hold the feast day on November 1st to supplant the New Year memorialization the night before. A group of Bendictine monks took the practice of praying to the saints one step further to include all souls as well in 998. It was officially placed in the literigucal calander in 1006. The Celts accepted this change because they could still secretly practice ancestor worship under the guise of honoring the souls of the deceased. Halloween never completely lost its pagan elemts despite the Church’s best

Samhain morphed into Halloween during the ninth century under the direction of the Catholic Church. According to Belk: “In order to co-opt the festival of the dead; in 835 Pope Gregory IV designated November 1st, Samhain, as "All Hallows" ("All Saints") Day. “ (509). The Church encouraged individuals to wear costumes in representation of the saints, but Samhain didn’t die down. Instead, All Soul’s was introduced in 998 and added to the official literigural calendar in 1006. Since it was now permissible to recognize the importance of all of the departed, ancestor worship was retained.

There is an obvious difference of opinion between two members of the Saint Elizabeth Catholic Church as it relates to whether as Christian we should celebrate Halloween. Couple A argues that is not up to Christianity to dictate what they should and should not celebrate, and uses Romans 14:5 to support their argument. Romans 14:5 reads, “In the same way, some think one day it is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. Each person should have a personal conviction about this matter” (Romans 14:5, New International Version). It is, therefore, their belief that they are within their rights to celebrate Halloween, as long as a family they are not dishonoring God.