Oh I do wish people would stop blabbering their lips like fish. Yapping their gums about Christmas from the summer time to now they prioritise it over another day which used to be seen as a great holiday but now it's seen as a excuse to dress up and get drunk and this holiday happens at the 31st October every year. Halloween.
My friends Halloween as a child was a special time it's where not only would the day itself be spooky but there would be a great build up of spookiness and creepy shows and decorations and costumes would fill up our tvs, shops and homes to be paranormal instead of well normal and trick r treating was beast unless you got bullied or treats got pinched that night of hallows eve.
As you get older into the Teens you see the point in dressing up fun still but to trick or treat is not on the menu because social anxiety and laziness but you appreciate the horrifying films and TV shows that would air this season.
When your an adult we should be still in love with the horror movies on this month and that dressing up is still fun but now everyone is on about Christmas this and Santa that every day, every month, every year and even on Christmas they are like "oh can't wait for the next one" yes you can lay down off the eggnog and come do your dooty and get spooky with me as I explore the origins of this once great day known as....
HALLOWEEN
So 31st October is celebrated yearly and known as a holiday called Halloween but did you know that Halloween originated with that of an ancient Celtic festival called; Samhain and in that festival people would light bonfires, and wear costumes to fight off any evil spirits that lurked near by. In the 8th century Pope Gregory 3 declared November first to be All Saints Day and this had a lot of the same traditions as Samhain and so the evening before was known as All Hallows Eve and later became Halloween. Overtime this holiday evolved into what we see today a day of sweets and other activities in costumes and pumpkin carving and bobbing for apples etc. Back to Samhain now where the Celts on November 1st celebrate their annual new year and this was all some like 2 thousand years ago. November first marked the end of summer and the harvest and that the winter meant the beginning of the dark and cold season, a time of year that was often associated with human death to them. The Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the spirits of the dead returned to earth. Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for their Druids, or priests, to make predictions about the future. For people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter so the Druids/Priests would build big bonfires they considered sacred and gathered people round them to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to their gods and the Celts would all wear costumes of animal skins and heads and tried to reassure one another by telling each other their futures. This sounds pretty bonkers don't it? Well when the celebration was over, they re-lit their fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the winter.
Now if you are wondering, "where the bloody hell did bobbing for apples come from?" well fear not for I have googled and I shall reveal it to you right here. In 43AD the Romans conquered the Celts well the majority at least, the Romans had two festivals which joined with Samhain. The first was Feralia, which was a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honour Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain, explains the tradition of “bobbing” for apples that is practised today on Halloween. So that's pretty interesting huh?
Now I referenced All Saints Day above somewhere and it's time to dive into that quickly. On May 13, 609AD, Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honour of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established in the Western church. Pope Gregory 3 would later expand the festival to include All Saints as well as All Martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1.Now in the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands, where it gradually blended with the older Celtic rites. In 1000AD, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honour the dead. All Souls Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-Hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS!
In terms of Bad Luck; We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into black cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred (it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe). And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt. Origin of the Jack O Lantern: A fun fall activity, carving Jack-o'-lanterns actually has its roots in a sinister, tragic fable. Celtic folklore tells the tale of a drunken farmer named Jack who tricked the devil, but his trickery resulted in him being turned away from both the gates of heaven and hell after he died. Having no choice but to wander around the darkness of purgatory, Jack made a lantern from a turnip and a burning lump of coal that the devil had tossed him from hell. Jack, the story goes, used the lantern to guide his lost soul; as such, the Celts believed that placing Jack-o'-lanterns outside would help guide lost spirits home when they wander the streets on Halloween. Originally made using a hollowed-out turnip with a small candle inside, Jack-o'-lanterns' frightening carved faces also served to scare evil spirits away. When the Irish potato famine of 1846 forced Irish families to flee to North America, the tradition came with them. Since turnips were hard to come by in the states at the time, pumpkins were used as a substitute.
Halloween Bats: Medieval folklore also described bats as witches' familiars, and seeing a bat on Halloween was considered to be quite an ominous sign. One myth was that if a bat was spotted flying around one's house three times, it meant that someone in that house would soon die. Another myth was that if a bat flew into your house on Halloween, it was a sign that your house was haunted because ghosts had let the bat in.
Halloween Spiders; A common source of fear, spiders make for creepy, crawly Halloween staples. They join the ranks of bats and black cats in folklore as being evil companions of witches during medieval times. One superstition held that if a spider falls into a candle-lit lamp and is consumed by the flame, witches are nearby. And if you spot a spider on Halloween, goes another superstition, it means that the spirit of a deceased loved one is watching over you.
Hallowed Cauldrons: The pagan Celts believed that after death, all souls went into the crone's cauldron, which symbolised the Earth mother's womb. There, the souls awaited reincarnation, as the goddess' stirring allowed for new souls to enter the cauldron and old souls to be reborn. That image of the cauldron of life has now been replaced by the steaming, bubbling, ominous brew.
The Witch's Broomstick; This is another superstition that has its roots in medieval myths. The elderly, introverted women that were accused of witchcraft were often poor and could not afford horses, so they navigated through the woods on foot with the help of walking sticks, which were sometimes substituted by brooms. English folklore tells that during night-time ceremonies, witches rubbed a "flying" potion on their bodies, closed their eyes and felt as though they were flying. The hallucinogenic ointment, which caused numbness, rapid heartbeat and confusion, gave them the illusion that they were soaring through the sky.
The traditional Halloween colours: These consist of orange and black actually stem from the pagan celebration of autumn and the harvest, with orange symbolising the colours of the crops and turning leaves, while black marks the "death" of summer and the changing season. Over time, green, purple and yellow have also been introduced into the colour scheme of Halloween decorations.
Trick Or Treat?; It surprisingly came from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors. Wish they would still believe this haha. In the 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighbourly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. However parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century. And we thought today's standards are too P.C. this clearly is the origin of the butthurt society sad times.
This has been a horrific holiday history piece on Halloween. Brought to you from Me and Google because not all the information I knew here and I googled some and sliced it up and brought it here with me.
If anyone wants me to do a post on scary stories for Halloween or based around Halloween let me know and i'll get onto it.
For now: Stay Spooky and Do Your Dooty!
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