October is over. It's time for some spooky, scary, and creepy celebration. Say HELLO to HALLOWEEN!
Oh by the way, what is halloween all about?
The History of Halloween and All Saints' Day
The actual details of this eventual evolvement to Halloween are murky due to the lack of recorded history during this time but they are no less fascinating. It was the belief of the Celts that each year held two parts; the light and the dark. Samhain can be literally translated as summer's end, or meaning the end of the light. This day, November 1st, was considered to be the dawn of the new year on the Celtic calendar.
When Christianity began to spread across the lands, the name was changed from Samhain to Hallowmas, also known as All Saints' Day. The ritual of all Saints' Day was to honor the souls of the dead from the previous year, thereby defaulting the preceding day to be known as All Hallow's Eve or Hollantide, what we now refer to as Halloween.
Halloween: Around the world
In Austria, some people will leave bread, water and a lighted lamp on the table before retiring on Halloween night. The reason for this is because it was once believed such items would welcome the dead souls back to earth on a night which for the Austrians was considered to be brimming with strong cosmic energies.
Modern Halloween celebrations in Canada began with the arrival of Scottish and Irish immigrants in the 1800s. Jack O'Lanterns are carved and the festivities include parties, trick-or-treating and the decorating of homes with pumpkins and corn stalks.
In Czechoslovakia, chairs are placed by the fireside on Halloween night. There is one chair for each living family member and one for each family member's spirit.
The Halloween celebration in Hong Kong is known as "Yue Lan" (Festival of the Hungry Ghosts) and is a time when it is believed that spirits roam the world for twenty-four hours. Some people burn pictures of fruit or money at this time, believing these images would reach the spirit world and bring comfort to the ghosts.
In Sweden, Halloween is known as "Alla Helgons Dag" and is celebrated from October 31 until November 6. As with many other holidays, "Alla Helgons Dag" has an eve which is either celebrated or becomes a shortened working day. The Friday prior to All Saint's Day is a short day for universities while school-age children are given a day of vacation.
Halloween is not a festival native to the Philippines but is a recent adaptation from American culture, and is usually celebrated in urban areas during the last week of October by throwing Halloween costume parties and letting the children go trick-or-treating. Filipinos in rural areas, however, prefer to observe the more traditional All Saints Day or Undas on the first two days of November. Because of the similarities between the two festivals, Halloween and Undas have come to be linked, and even viewed by some as one celebration.
Common Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, committing pranks, telling ghost stories or other frightening tales, and watching horror films.
Where there is no imagination there is no horror.
- - -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
