Because today is Hallowe'en and because it plays an important role in the British/American culture, let us search for some information on this.
Task 1. Use a search engine to look for background information concerning this festivity and post a summary of it here on the blog.
2. Search for a ghost story / spooky tale and prepare a summary of it to tell the rest of our group
Regards,
STEN Neto
13 comments:
Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. The most common things used to celebrate this day includes trick-or-treating, Halloween festivals, costume parties, "haunted houses" visiting and carving jack-o-lanterns. Originally from the Pagan festival Samhain, celebrated in Irland and Great Britain it arrived to the western countries through Irish and Scottish immigrants.
History
The modern holiday of Halloween has its origins in the ancient Gaelic festival known as Samhain (from the Old Irish samain). The Festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is erroneously regarded as 'The Celtic New Year'.Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The Ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them. When the Romans occupied Celtic territory, several Roman traditions were also incorporated into the festivals. Feralia, a day celebrated in late October by the Romans for the passing of the dead as well as a festival which celebrated the Roman Goddess Pomona, the goddess of fruit were incorporated into the celebrations. The symbol of Pomona was an apple, which is a proposed origin for the tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
Halloween’s origins
The origin of Halloween retraces to the traditions of the peoples who had inhabited the Gália and the islands of Great-Britain between 600 years B.C. e 800 d.C., even so with marked differences in relation to current pumpkins or of the famous phrase “Gostosuras or pranks”, exported for the United States, that had popularized the commemoration.
Originally, Halloween did not have relation with witches. Celta of Ireland, the festival of Samhain was a festival of the calendar, celebrated it enters 30 of October and 2 of November and marked the end of the summer (samhain literally means “end of the summer” in the language celta).
The end of the summer was considered as New Year for celtas. She was therefore one dates sacred a time that, during this period, celtas considered that the “veil” between the material world and the world of deceased (ancestral) and of deuses (world the holy ghost) it was more tenuous.
The Samhain was commemorated for return of the day 1° of November, with joy and homages to that already they had left and to deuses. For celtas, deuses also was its ancestral ones, the first ones of all family tree.
Halloween borned as a corrupted idea of the day 1st of November, “the day of all the saints”. The word Halloween was origined from the word halowinas, the name given to the female guardians of the occult knowledge of the Scandinavia.
The one legend of Halloween was that the dead spirits came along the years searching for the living people, to posses them and leave in their bodies for that year.
In USA, the Halloween started to be celebrated in 1840 by irish emigrants.
It’s an event origin between druids and Celts, who lived in Ireland and Great Britain, commemorated since 2500 AC.
Celts believe that in the night of 31 October the laws of space and time where suspended. Because that, the spirits ambled freely and the dead ones visited their old houses to call for food.
To scare them, people make fires, and leaved to the street with candles, and putted the most frighten closes.
Make also lots of noise.
Hallowe’en has its origins in the British Isles. Since ancient times in Ireland, Scotland, and England, and has been celebrated as a feast for the dead, and also the day that marks the New Year. October 31 lies exactly between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice, it is theorized that ancient peoples, with their reliance on astrology, thought it was a very potent time for magic and communion with spirits. The "veil between the worlds" of the living and the dead was said to be at its thinnest on this day; so the dead were invited to return to feast with their loved ones; welcomed in from the cold, much as the animals were brought inside. Ancient customs range from placing food out for dead ancestors, to performing rituals for communicating with those who had passed over.
The Halloween is o holiday that remounts to the year 600 a.c in Great Britain
and in those days hasn’t a witch’s festival but yes a Celtic holiday that marks the end of de Summer. It becomes Halloween because the night between 31of October and 1 of November it has a Hallow Evening for this names it becomes Halloween. That The English settlers took to America.
The Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celtics lived at 2000 years ago in the area that is now U.K. and they used to celebrate their new year on November 1st. This day marked the end of the summer and the beginning of winter and cold and darkness. a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
Then later in the seventh century, the Pope designated November 1 All Saints' Day, to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day…
Because of this is the Halloween so important for this culture.
Halloween, or Hallowe'en, is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, Halloween festivals, bonfires, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses", carving jack-o-lanterns, and viewing horror films. Halloween originated from the Pagan festival Samhain, celebrated among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is now celebrated in several parts of the western world, most commonly in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom and occasionally in parts of Australia and New Zealand.
The term Halloween (and its alternative rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day",[1] also which is now known as All Saints' Day.
Many European cultural traditions, in particular Celtic cultures, hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world, and when magic is most potent (according to, for example, Catalan mythology about witches and Irish tales of the Sídhe).
Halloween’s background.
Halloween it’s an event of cultural and traditional roots, which take place in the Anglo-saxonic countries. The basis and origins were the Celtic pagan celebrations from Gaul and British Islands, between 600 B.C. and 800 A.D. although with huge difference from the modern celebration.
In the beginning, the Halloween didn’t have any liaison with witches or pumpkins. It was a festival of the Celt calendar, which took place among the October 30th and the November 2nd, marking the end of summer, which was considered by the Celts as his new-year day. During this period they believed that the boundaries of this world and the kingdom of the deaths become dim, allowing the communication among the living and their ancestors.
Since the Middle-age this tradition becomes to vanish, beginning to be replaced through Christian traditions which adopt that celebration and turned into the actual all souls night/ all saints day. Nowadays besides the candies, disguised kids and pumpkins, the Halloween has regaining its former meaning through the modern druids, Wicca and goodwill.
Thank you very much for your effort. I believe we all know a bit more about the origins of Hallowe'en.
STEN Neto
And I thought there was nothing left to be learnt about the Halloween... Thank you so much for the fresh information. Fantastic job! Keep up the good work.
Marta
Hello!
(A belated)Happy Halloween.
How are you all doing?
Did you play a lot of tricks on people or were you treated?
Here in the UK we got a lot of kids knocking on our door. We treated them to candy of course...or else...we were told!
Best
Cristina
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