Origin of Halloween
The Celtic Connection
Our moderen celebration is a very distant descendant of the ancient Celtic fire festival valled Sarnhain.The Celts lived more than 2,000 years ago who are now Great Britain, Ireland, and France. Their new year began on November 1st. Among the Celts, Samhain marked the end of the beginning of the next. It was one of four Celtic holiday linked to important transitions in the annual cycle of seasons. It wans the biggest and most important holiday of the Celtic year.
Celtic legends tell us that on this nigh, all the hearth fires in Ireland were extin-guished, and then relit from the central of the Druids at Tlachtga, 12 miles from the royal hill of Tara. The Druids were the Celts' religious priests who also acted as judges, lawmakers, poets, scholars, and scentists. The Druids burned animals and crops on their sacred bonfire. The extinguishing of the hearth fires symbolized the "dark half"of hte year. The kindling from the Druidic fire was symbolic of the returning life that was hoped for in the spring.
In the Cetic belief sustem, the turning of the year was the most influence of these times. This was the time when the "veil between the worlds" was at its thinnest, and the dead could communicate with the living. Samhain began at sundown on October 31 and extended into the following day. According to the Celtic pagan religion, known as Druidisn, the spirits of those who had died in the preceding year roamed the earth on Samhain evening. The Celts sought to contrain these spirits from providing food and drink. the Celts also built bonfires at sacred hilltop sites and performed rituals, often including animal sacrifies , to honor Druid deities.
Much later, in the Middle Ages, the Catholic church marked November 1st as "All saints Day" when believers go to church and remeber kind, helpful people called "saints". The evening before was considered a sacred time, a "hallowed evening". People later began to shorten the name of that night to "Holloween", and made it a night for pranks. So many Holloween Gagets appear at the same time which are made for a prank night and fun. Thus, Halloween is born.
Superstitions
Folk tradition tells us of some divinations practices associated with Samhain. Among the most common were divinations dealing with marriage, weather, and the coming fortunes for the year. These were performed via such methods as bobbing for appleas and apple peeling. Bobbing for apples was a marriage diviation. The first person to bite an apple would be the first to marry in the coming year. Apple peeling was a divination to see how long your life would be. The longer the unbroken apple peel, the longer your life was destined to be. In Scotland, people would place stones or nuts in the ashes of the hearth before retiring for the night. Anyone whose stone had been disturbed during the night was said to be destined to die during the coming year.
There is no evidence that the ancient Druids or their congregants ever dredded in costume(Halloween Gadgets) or their congregants ever dressed in costume or engaged in ritualized begging at harvest time. In the 1930s in the US, Halloween was all about "pranks". In those days of coal fuel, there were big cans of ashes that the kids would tip over, making a big mess. People began offering candy to the possible pranksters to protect their house, yard, and possessions. The origin of "trick or treat" comes from trying to offset pranks and allowing children who throw themselves into kinds of Halloween gadages to enjoy collecting candy in the neighborhood.