Ariella Green Week 7: All Hallow’s Eve
Ariella Green Week 7: All Hallow’s Eve
This year’s blog project has made me realize that I like to research about Holidays in the Jewish and Pagan calendar. This week, many people in the United States have celebrated Halloween which as we know is on October 31st. After hearing about this holiday for so many years, I think this is the perfect time to know where it originated from.
Unlike Max Dennsion's belief that “...Halloween was invented by the candy companies [,and that] it's a conspiracy” could not be further from the truth. It began around 2,000 years ago when the Celtic people, who lived in Ireland, would celebrate their new year called Samhain on November 1st. Their celebration began on October 31st because they believed that on this night, the boundary between the dead and the living became blurred. It was said that on this day, the priests would be able to make prophecies and predictions. The people would dress up in costumes from animals, host bonfires and sacrifice their crops/animals in order to tell read other’s fortunes.
Since the Celtic people were conquered by the Roman empire, and are no longer around, the Romans took on this tradition with the days Feralia and Pomona. On Feralia, the Romans honor the dead, and on Pomona, they honor the goddess of fruit and trees.
Later on, once the early settlers came to colonial New England, Halloween came overseas as well. The people would celebrate by dressing up, telling stories of the dead, and dancing. As more immigrants came to America, Halloween was inspired by the European holiday called All Soul’s Day. In Europe, the poor would go around asking people for food, and they would receive soul cakes. Halloween had emerged into this neighborly holiday of asking your neighbor to borrow things like food or money (which today is now trick-or-treating). It wasn’t until the 1920s that Halloween became a more secular holiday with parades/parties.
Question: What do you think about this holiday and how it has changed over the years?
information.
This is so interesting and I had no idea what Halloween's history was before now. I don't formally celebrate Halloween because it isn't a "Jewish" holiday but I never really understood why. However it has definitely become industrialized/commercialized over the years and it is almost a little saddening that the tradition of the past has kind of faded.
ReplyDeleteI have always loved Halloween. I wasn't allowed to participate in it until a couple years ago, but I am happy I am now. I think Halloween should be able to be celebrated by all religions.
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