Origin of Halloween

Halloween in English is All Saints Day, one of the Catholic and Orthodox festivals, and is a traditional festival in Western countries. Chinese-speaking regions often mistake Halloween as Halloween. "Hallow" comes from the Middle English halwen, which is very close to the etymology of holy. In some areas of Scotland and Canada, Halloween is still called "All Hallow Mas".

On that day, the Mass to be held is to celebrate all the saints (Hallow) in the sky. Now the society organizes various activities full of ghosts and ghosts on the night of October 31st for commercial interests or other purposes, which completely deviates from the sacred meaning of Halloween.

Regarding the origin of Halloween, there are many versions, and the widely circulated version is:

More than 2,000 years ago, the Catholic Church in Europe designated November 1 as "All Hallows' Day". "Hallow" means a saint. Legend has it that since the fifth century BC, the Celts who lived in Ireland, Scotland, and other places moved the festival one day forward, namely October 31. They consider this day to be the official end of summer, the beginning of the new year, the day the harsh winter begins.

At that time, people believed that the deceased soul of the deceased would return to the former residence on this day to search for living beings in the living, so as to regenerate, and this was the only hope for people to be reborn after death. The living is afraid of the souls of the dead taking their lives, so people put out the fire and candles on this day so that the souls of the dead cannot find the living, and they dress up as demons and ghosts to scare away the souls of the dead. After that, they will rekindle the fire and candlelight to start a new year of life.

Halloween was originally a celebration of autumn, just as May Day was a celebration of spring. The Druid, the priest of ancient Gaul, Britain, and Ireland, had a grand festival in praise of autumn, which lasted a whole day from midnight on October 31st to November 1st the following day.

They believed that that night their great god of death, Saman, had summoned all the ghosts of those who died that year and that these evil spirits would be punished by being born as animals. Of course, just thinking about this kind of ghostly gathering was enough to make the simple-minded people of that time tremble. So they lit bonfires soaring into the sky and kept a close watch on these evil spirits. That's how the idea of ​​witches and ghosts everywhere on Halloween began. It is still believed to be true in some isolated parts of Europe to this day.

The ancient Romans also had a festival on November 1st to honor their goddess Pomona. They roast nuts and apples in front of a roaring campfire. Our Halloween seems to be a combination of ancient Roman festivals and Druid festivals.

The activities of Halloween turned out to be very simple, and most of them were carried out in churches. But across Europe, Halloween is seen as a chance to have fun, tell ghost stories and scare each other. So people stopped using this festival to celebrate autumn but made it a festival for monsters, witches, and ghosts.

Origin of Halloween costumes:

Halloween costumes originate from pranks. Adults take children out with them (usually adults drive by the side of the road, and children say, "Trick or treat if you don't give candy). Adults ask children in advance that children are only allowed to go to places with festive decorations and lights at the door. Others, otherwise do not disturb. In addition, during the process of begging for candy, you must always wait at the gate and are not allowed to enter the house. The returned candy must be checked by adults before eating. People who receive children are also required not to make their own candy. food, nor unpackaged food.

Halloween costumes are universal, not just monotonous ghosts. The easiest way to make a ghost costume is to put a white sheet on the head and cut out two holes to leave the eyes; if you want to play a magician, you need to wear black clothes and black pants, then put on a black top hat, and put on the top hat and the top of the head. There is a fluffy rabbit hidden in the space for backup; children dress up as little angels by wearing white clothes and white pants, and tying a flashlight behind their heads; there are also parents who dress their children as their favorite cartoon characters.

Origin of jack-o-lantern:

Jack-o-lanterns originated in ancient Ireland. Legend has it that a man named Jack was a drunkard who loved mischief. On Halloween, he trapped the devil in a tree, and he wouldn't let him down until the devil promised to never let him live in hell.

After Jack died, because he didn't believe in God, he couldn't go to heaven, and the devil wouldn't let him go to hell. In order to help Jack find the way back to the world, the devil gave him burning charcoal, and Jack put the burning charcoal on the Inside a lantern he carved from a large carrot, the first "Jack's Lantern", helped find his way back to Ireland, but he never found it, so he wandered the world with the lantern forever.

In the old Irish legend, this small candle was placed in a hollowed-out radish, called "Jack Lanterns", and the ancient radish lamp has evolved into today, it is Jack-O-Lantern made of pumpkin. It is said that shortly after the Irish arrived in the United States, they found that pumpkins were better than radishes in terms of source and carving, so pumpkins became the darling of Halloween.