HALLOWEEN FACTS

             HALLOWEEN

           ancient origins 

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic

festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is

now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France,

celebrated their new year on November 1. This day

marked the end of summer and the harvest and the

beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was

often associated with human death.  On the

night of October 31st, they celebrated Samhain, when it

was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred

bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and

animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically

consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell

each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they

re-lit their fires at home, which they had extinguished

earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help

protect them during the coming winter.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic

territory, and later two festivals of Roman origin were

combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of

Samhain.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into

Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV

designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honour

saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the

pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the

dead with a  church-sanctioned holiday. The

celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas

(from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints'

Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began

to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

history of the jack o'lantern

The Irish brought the tradition of the Jack O'Lantern to

America. But, the original Jack O'Lantern was not a

pumpkin. The Jack O'Lantern legend goes back hundreds

of years in Irish History. As the story goes, Stingy Jack

was a miserable, old drunk who liked to play tricks on

everyone: family, friends, his mother and even the Devil

himself. One day, he tricked the Devil into climbing up an

apple tree. Once the Devil climbed up the apple tree,

Stingy Jack hurriedly placed crosses around the trunk of

the tree. The Devil was then unable to get down the tree.

Stingy Jack made the Devil promise him not to take his

soul when he died. Once the devil promised not to take

his soul, Stingy Jack removed the crosses and let the

Devil down.

Many years later, when Jack finally died, he went to the

pearly gates of Heaven and was told by Saint Peter that he

was too mean and too cruel and had led a miserable and

worthless life on earth. He was not allowed to enter

heaven. He then went down to Hell and the Devil. The

Devil kept his promise and would not allow him to enter

Hell. Now Jack was scared and had nowhere to go but to

wander about forever in the darkness between heaven and

hell. He asked the Devil how he could leave as there was

no light. The Devil tossed him an ember from the flames

of Hell to help him light his way. Jack placed the ember in

a hollowed out Turnip, one of his favourite foods which

he always carried around with him whenever he could

steal one. For that day onward, Stingy Jack roamed the

earth without a resting place, lighting his way as he went

with his "Jack O'Lantern".

On all Hallow's eve, the Irish hollowed out Turnips,

rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets. They placed a light

in them to ward off evil spirits and keep Stingy Jack away.

These were the original Jack O'Lanterns. In the 1800's a

couple of waves of Irish immigrants came to America.

The Irish immigrants quickly discovered that Pumpkins

were bigger and easier to carve out. So they used

pumpkins for Jack O'Lanterns.

FIRE
Fire was very important to the Celts as it was to all early

people. In the old days people lit bonfires, to scare away

evil spirits. They believed that light had power over

darkness. In some places they used to jump over the fire

to bring good luck.

Today, we light candles in pumpkin lanterns and then put

them outside our homes to frighten away witches and

ghosts.

APPLE BOBBING (Duck-apple)

The Roman festival for remembering the dead was also in

October. During this time, the Romans remembered their

goddess, Pomona. She was the goddess of the trees and

fruits, and when the Romans came to Britain, they began

to hold these two festivals on the same day as Samhain.

Apple games probably became associated with Halloween

because of this.

We play the game bobbing for apples, in which apples are

placed in a tub or a large basin of water. The contestants,

sometimes blindfolded, must take one bite from one of the

apples without using their hands. 

DRESSING UP

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has

both European and Celtic roots. On Halloween, when it

was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world,

people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they

left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these

ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their

homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them

for fellow spirits.

TRICK OR TREAT

Halloween was a time for making mischief - many parts

of England still recognise Halloween as Mischief Night -

when children would knock on doors demanding a treat

(Trick or Treat) and people would disguise themselves as

witches and ghosts, in order to obtain food and money

from nervous householders.