01/11/2025
HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN
Halloween has roots in the 2000-year-old ancient Celticf estival of Samhain (pronounced "SAH-win"), which celebrated the end of summer and the harvest, marked the start of a new year, a time when the boundary between the living and the dead was blurred, the Celts built bonfires, wore costumes, often made of animal heads and skins, to ward off the spirits of the dead, which they believed returned to earth on the night of October 31. This date was later influenced by Christianity. Pope Gregory III, in the 8th century, moved All Saints' Day to November 1 to absorb Celtic traditions and to honor saints. The evening before, October 31, became known as All Hallows' Eve, which eventually shortened to HALLOWEEN.
The Celts believed that on Halloween, the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead was at its thinnest, allowing spirits to walk the Earth.
The traditions of Samhain and All Hallows' Eve blended over time; the Roman festival honoring Pomona, the goddess of fruit also influenced traditions like bobbing for apples. The Christian church incorporated some of the pagan traditions, and later, All Souls' Day was established on November 2 to honor the dead, further blending the holidays.
Europeans carved faces into turnips, potatoes, beets and lit them with candles and used them as lanterns in windows or doors and carried them around to frighten away supernatural entities, evil spirits, harmful creatures and malevolent beings like the mythical Stingy Jack and guided their way, hence the ingeniously named and very popular Jack-o'-Lanterns, which afterwards were and still are carved out of pumpkins because they are much larger and easier to carve.
Irish and Scottish immigrants brought many Halloween customs to Norrh America in the 19th century. Initially, traditions like "tricks" involved harmless pranks, but over time, these evolved into trick-or-treating as a way to prevent vandalism.
Today's celebration includes dressing up in costumes, trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins (kn🎃wn as Jack-o'-Lanterns) and having festive gatherings.
HALLOWEEN makes the candy industry ridiculously rich every year by comercializing infinite amounts of sw
