The History of Halloween: Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31, and Halloween 2023 will take place on Tuesday, October 31. Trick-or-treating, attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror or Halloween-themed films are all popular Halloween activities. Some individuals observe All Hallows’ Eve Christian religious observances, such as attending church services and putting candles on the graves of the dead, despite the fact that Easter is a secular festival for others. Here is The History of Halloween
History
The origins of Halloween can be traced back to the ancient Celtic celebration of Samhain. The Celts, who resided in what is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France 2,000 years ago, celebrated their new year on November 1.
This day signified the end of summer and the harvest, as well as the start of the dark, frigid winter, a season traditionally connected with human death. Celts thought that during the night before the new year, the line between the living and the dead was blurred.
In addition to causing havoc and destroying crops, Celts believed that the presence of otherworldly spirits made it easier for Druids, or Celtic priests, to prophesy the future. These forecasts were an essential source of solace throughout the long, dark winter for people who were completely dependent on the turbulent natural environment.
Druids erected massive sacred bonfires to celebrate the festival, where people came to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the feast, the Celts dressed up in animal heads and skins and sought to tell one other’s fortunes.
When the festival was done, they re-lit their hearth fires from the sacred bonfire. Which they had extinguished earlier that evening, to help preserve them.
Trick or Treat
Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween celebration for youngsters. Children dress up and travel from home to house, asking for presents such as candy or money and asking, “Trick or treat?. The term “trick” implies a “threat” to cause harm to the homeowners or their property if no treat is provided.
Borrowing from European traditions, Americans began dressing up in costumes and going door to door asking for food or money. A practice that evolved into today’s “trick-or-treat” celebration. Young ladies believed that by performing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors on Halloween. They could discern the name or looks of their future husbands.
In the late 1800s, there was a movement in America to make Halloween a celebration of community and neighborly gatherings rather than ghosts, pranks, and witches. Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most popular way to commemorate the holiday around the turn of the century. Parties centered on games, seasonal delicacies, and spectacular costumes.
Newspapers and community leaders urged parents to keep anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. By the beginning of the twentieth century. Halloween had lost much of its superstitious and religious undertones as a result of these efforts.
Modern Halloween
Modern Halloween iconography is derived from a variety of sources. Including Christian eschatology, national customs, and Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus and Dracula). And classic horror films such as Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932). Skull imagery is a reference to Golgotha in the Christian tradition. Serves as “a reminder of death and the transitory quality of human life”. And is thus found in memento mori and vanitas compositions. Skulls have thus become commonplace on Halloween, which touches on this theme.
The back walls of churches are traditionally “decorated with a depiction of the Last Judgment. Complete with graves opening and the dead rising, with a heaven filled with angels and a hell filled with devils.”
Costumes
Traditionally, Halloween costumes were based on figures such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, scary-looking witches, and demons. Over time, the costume collection grew to include popular fictional characters, celebrities, and generic archetypes like ninjas and princesses.
Religious Views on Halloween
Sheikh Idris Palmer, author of A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, has ruled that Muslims should not celebrate Halloween. Stating that “participation in Halloween is worse than participation in Christmas, Easter,… it is more sinful than congratulating Christians on their prostration to the crucifix.”
Hindus remember the dead during the Pitru Paksha festival. During this Hindus pay tribute to and perform a rite “to keep the souls of their ancestors at rest.” It is observed in the Hindu month of Bhadrapada, usually in mid-September.
Halloween is not permitted by Jewish Halakha, according to Alfred J. Kolatch in the Second Jewish Book of Why, since it contradicts Leviticus 18:3. Which prevents Jews from participating in gentile customs. Many Jews practice Yizkor communally four times a year. This is comparable to the Christian holiday of Allhallowtide in that prayers are made for both “martyrs and for one’s own family.”
Christian beliefs and rituals are said to have influenced Halloween. Halloween is derived from “All Hallows’ Eve,”. The evening preceding the Christian holy days of All Hallows’ Day (All Saints’ Day) on 1 November and All Souls’ Day on 2 November. Since the period of the early Church. Important Christian feasts (such as Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost) have had pre-feast vigils, as has the Feast of All Hallows’. Allhallowtide is a three-day period during which Western Christians honor all saints. And pray for recently departed souls who have yet to enter Heaven.
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