Halloween or Hallowe’en is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, as well as watching horror films.
About Halloween in brief
Halloween or Hallowe’en is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, as well as watching horror films. One theory holds that many Halloween traditions may have been influenced by ancient Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain, which may have had pagan roots. Other academics believe Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, being the vigil of All Hallow’s Day. Some Christians historically abstained from meat, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes, and soul cakes. The word Halloween dates to about 1745 and is of Christian origin. It comes from a Scottish term for All Hallow’s Eve. In Scots, the word ‘eve’ is even, and this is contracted to e’en or een. Over time, Hallow Een evolved into Hallowe’en. Although the phrase ‘All Hallows’’ is found in Old English, ‘Hallow’s Eve’ was not seen until 1556. It is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of ‘Samhain’, which comes from the Old Irish for ‘summer’ and means ‘first day of winter’.
For the Celts, the day ended and began at sunset; thus the festival began on the evening before 7 November by modern reckoning. The names have been used by historians to refer to Celtic Halloween customs up until the 19th century, and are still the Gaelian and Welsh names for Halloween. The Aos Sí, the ‘spirits’ or ‘fairies, could more easily come into this world and were particularly active after they had been active in the religious power of the people. The souls of the dead were also said to revisit their homes seeking hospitality and hospitality by the fire. The belief that the dead return on one night of the night needed to be propitiated to ensure that people and their livestock survived the winter. The name ‘Aos’ means “the night’ in Gaelic, and ‘Sí’ can be translated as ‘soul’ or “soul.’ ”““Hallowe” is a Celtic word for “night” and “hallowtide” means the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints, martyrs, and all the faithful departed. “Halloween” was used as a name for a festival held by the Brittonic Celts called Calan Gaeaf in Wales, Kalan Gwav in Cornwall and Kalan Goañv in Brittany.
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This page is based on the article Halloween published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 19, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
