history of halloween

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 has already spread worldwide, and been given many cultural interpretations of what it represents, and how it should be celebrated. However, Día de los Muertos has just recently started spreading farther outside of hispanic culture. Día de los Muertos is a holiday celebrating death and the afterlife that death brings, as well as embracing the deceased as if they are, in a way, gods. Whereas, Halloween’s

Thesis Statement: How Halloween has evolved from what it once was to what is now.

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

Halloween and Dia de los Muertos are very interesting holidays in there own different ways. Halloween and Day of the Dead can be similar but on the bottom line they are very different by the way they decorate, what they eat, and how they celebrate the holidays. The two holidays may seem similar at first but after understanding the complexity of the ideas behind both holidays actions, your opinion can change. For example during Halloween some kids might go trick or treating but in Mexico during the Day of the Dead, people would go to grave sites and have picnics with people who have passed on and a famous sauce they would eat is mole sauce which is like a spicy chocolate sauce. There are a lot of differences to explore about the two

On Dia de los Muertos, the people who celebrate this holiday celebrate death. The Mexicans and Central Americans who celebrate Dia de los Muertos think that death is just another part of life, and that the people who die go to the afterlife. During Dia de los Muertos, the families of the loved ones who’ve died will create an altar for the dead person’s spirit. The families will make the altar, and cover it with food, decorations, and things that the person had once liked. Objects like a drink or food they liked, or a colored cloth representing the color, or even toys or games that the person liked before the death. The altar is covered in Las Flores. This flower is something that everyone has on their altars. Las Velas light and guide the souls to the altar.The people also celebrating Dia de los Muertos dress up like what the person looked like, or what job they had. On Halloween, people dress up as whatever they want to be to get candy, and go Trick-or-Treating. On Halloween in Europe in medieval times, the people would go out in costumes because they were scared that there were spirits roaming around. They didn’t do this “holiday” because it was fun, instead they did it out of fear. Halloween started with the Celtic pagan ritual known as Samhain. During “Halloween” in medieval times, the people believed that barrier between our world, and the spirit world was at its thinnest, and people could communicate with the dead.

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.

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.

Day of the Dead ( Dia de los Muertos) is a Mexican holiday that`s celebrated in many parts of Mexico and the U.S. and Day of the Dead is to remember and celebrate family and friends who have died. This holiday is celebrated on November 1st. Day of the Dead celebrates friends and family members who have died. In most parts of Mexico, Day of the Dead is meant to celebrate children that unfortunately died. Adults that have died are honored on November 2nd. The feeling of Day of the Dead is more of a celebration than mourning the passed on family and friends. Mexicans embrace death and celebrate the deceased. Halloween (or All Hallow`s eve) is celebrated on October 31 in many countries but mostly in the United States and Canada. The purpose of Day of the Dead is to remember and celebrate friends and family who have died. The purpose of Halloween is to respect the afterlife. The meaning of Halloween is ‘the night before All Hallows' Day’ ( Aka All Saints' Day). Day of the dead is associated with decorative skulls while Halloween is associated with spooky ghosts and carved pumpkins.

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

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 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.

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”).