Halloween is one of the oldest holidays, but it didn't start out as a holiday for costumes, trick or treating or carving pumpkins. Halloween wouldn't what it is today if not for the Celtic holiday of Samhain, an ancient celebration of the spirits of the dead. A Roman festival called Feralia is another Halloween inspiration. On the day of Samhain, the Celtic people would all extinguish their home's hearth fire. They would gather in front of a blessed bonfire and would sing, dance and listen to the stories that where told during the celebration. At the end of the evening each person would take some of the bonfire home to relight their heart fire in hopes of ensuring good fortune to their home and family for the coming year.
By the 19th centuriy, most of the religous aspects of the Halloween celebration had dwinled away it was mostly a secular holiday, a gathering of comunity with only some of remnants of the past clinging to it like the cobwebs of a haunted house. People would still dress up in costume, but less for the original reason of confusing the dead and more for just plain entertainment and fun.
Eventually, the holiday we know as Halloween become known this way after Christian missionaries set out to tamper with the ways the Celts practiced religion. The holiday really began to change following the Roman's domination over most of the Celtic territory.
Samhain was declared pagan as Christianity spread, and a celebration associated with the devil and all things evil. Since Druids were priests and scholars of the practice deemed pagan, the scholary men were seen as worshipers of evil and the Devil. Christians categorizes the underworld of the Celts as tied in the Hell.
The Halloween celebrated today has elements of several different religious and cultural traditions.
Europian imigrants brought many of their traditions and beliefs with them to the New World. Halloween itself was largely disallowed, even forbidden, but in Maryland, the tradition was not only allowed but encouraged.
There are still many, especially among fundamentalist Christians, who believe that Halloween is nothing more than a celebration of paganism because of some traditions that are involved.
While there are obviously parts of the globe that do not recognize or celebrate it, Halloween around the world is a traditional holiday that is considered one of the oldest in history.
Great history lesson of Halloween. I hope you had a happy holiday!
AtbildētDzēsthttp://kimchicakes2.blogspot.com/
Thank You Kimci Cakes, I was surprised when funded out that Halloween isn't American tradition :)
AtbildētDzēst