When:
🗓️ October 31
Where:
🌐 Everywhere
Since:
A very long
time ago
🦇
Also known as:
Samhain, All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Eve, Calan Gaeaf, Feast of Apples, Feast of Souls, Feast of the Dead
🍂🌾
In contrary to popular belief Halloween is not an original American holiday.
Halloween is not even merely a copy of Samhain.
Halloween has no roots in Christianity.
Halloween has no roots in Satanism either because that’s just another belief that has its origins in Christian belief.
Halloween has been adopted by several religions, but it’s origins lie in ancient celebrations of harvest festivals in the Celtic and Gealic regions. Which we now know as Europe and several regions near Europe.
The end of October falls in the autumn of the Northern Hemisphere.
Autumn is the time of harvest and when the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer.
Halloween is on the doorstep of winter when most plants are dying and that what is still alive prepares themselves to survive the cold and harsh winter.
No wonder that the transition from autumn to winter is seen as the twilight zone between the world of the living and the realm of the dead when we are going from the lively summer to the deadly winter!
They say that Halloween is the one night a year when the dead can walk among the living.
But let’s be real: if the dead really wanted to hang out with us, they wouldn’t wait until Halloween.
In the new Halloween the old pagan custom of mumming for treats became trick or treating for candy.
Instead of carving turnips we now carve pumpkins.
Apple bobbing is one of the very old games celebrating the harvest.
And part where we assign the theme of being scary to Halloween comes from our old superstitious past of being afraid in the increasing dark.
Oh wait…we are still actually that superstitious.
Scaring away the malicious ghosts that may pass by, by dressing up like one of them, is also a custom that is so old we don’t even remember starting it.
👻
New Halloween may be more commercial and more colorful.
But the main theme is still the same one that we celebrated all those thousands of years ago.
Autumn celebrations are still all about surviving the cold dark time before we can enjoy the prosperous warm time of spring again.
🎃
#Halloween #Samhain #AllHallowsEve #AllSaintsEve #AllHallowsEve #CalanGaeaf #FeastOfApples #FeastOfSouls #FeastOfTheDead #Hallowmas #NovemberEve
“If you’re not sure what to be for Halloween, just dress up as a mummy.
That way, if you get too drunk and pass out, your friends can just wrap you up and call it a night.”
