Griffin asked me a long time ago about why do we celebrate Halloween and dress up in
costumes. I did not know the answer so I looked on the internet. The
following information comes from
http://www.wilstar.com/holidays/hallown.htm. This is quite interesting and involves Ireland!
Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a
celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as
some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of
some ancient pagan ritual?
The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic
Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve.
November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic
day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in
Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was
called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those
who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of
living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their
only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and
time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to
intermingle with the living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the
night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their
homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in
all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the
neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away
spirits looking for bodies to possess.
Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires
was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic
tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire
that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.
Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who
was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the
spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first
century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the
other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to
honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona
is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of
bobbing for apples on Halloween.
The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more
ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of
dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more
ceremonial role.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine.
How are family celebrates it? Well we don't celebrate Halloween but we do take advantage of the opportunity to celebrate community and light in darkness, enjoy having good fun with friends and family. We have appetizers and desserts for dinner. The kids go from room to room in the house with an adult being in each room dressed up crazy/funny with an unexpected character personality that makes the kids laugh. They hand out candy to the kids. We finish the evening by watching a movie and eating pumpkin seeds. The highlight of each year are the pumpkin carvings. Last year we had a minion, Rapunzel from Tangled and Ariel from the Little Mermaid. I wonder what we will have this year. I am pretty sure something having to do with the Hobbit. :) Of course our family traditions would not be complete without the
Pumpkin Prayer and the
Peter Pumpkin Story
