Halloween Day: The Secret History of Halloween

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Halloween, The Annual Holiday on October 31 celebrated each year. The day is Wednesday for Halloween 2018. Halloween has different name such as Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve.

The History of Halloween:

Today’s Halloween customs thought have been influenced by Christian dogma. The Christian Holydays is celebrated on 1 November and All Souls Day on 2 November. But Halloween is the evening before the Christian Holy days. Thus gives the holiday on 31 October.  So, the full name of All Hallows’ Eve meaning the evening before All Hallows’ Day. These 3 days are called Allhallowtide. Some Christian families in Franch, on the night of All Hallows’ Eve, prayed beside the graves of their loved ones, setting down dishes full of milk for them. Halloween Spreads to North America as well.

Halloween, The Annual Holiday on October 31 celebrated each year. The day is Wednesday for Halloween 2018. Halloween has different name such as Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve or All Saints’ Eve.

In this time, Today’s Halloween customs are thought to have been influenced by folk customs as well and beliefs from the Celtic-speaking countries. Historian Nicholas Rogers explored the origins of Halloween. He notes that while “some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which comes from the Old Irish for ‘summer’s end’.”

The household festivities in Ireland and Britain included rituals and games intended to foretell one’s future, especially regarding death and marriage. They used Apples and nuts in these divination rituals including nut roasting, apple bobbing, scrying or mirror-gazing, dream interpretation, pouring molten lead or egg whites into water and others. They used an special bonfires. The Special bonfires were lit and there were rituals involving them.

Their smoke, flames and ashes were deemed to have protective and cleansing powers and were also used for divination. In some places, torches lit from the bonfire were carried sunwise around homes and fields to protect them. It is suggested that the fires were a kind of imitative or sympathetic magic – they mimicked the Sun, helping the “powers of growth” and holding back the decay and darkness of winter. These bonfires and divination games were banned by the church elders in some parishes in Scotland.

You can see a traditional Irish Halloween turnip (rutabaga) lantern on display in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland. On All Hallows’ Eve, Christians in some parts of the world visit cemeteries to pray and place flowers and candles on the graves of their loved ones.

 

 

Written by: admin