I need to remind you that I came from a country that doesn’t have Halloween as a holiday on its calendar, so the first question for my teacher was: “Why is there Halloween in the U.S.?” I can tell you that considering all the Halloween stuff on the market (in fact there is Halloween merchandise everywhere) I supposed that it’s very important, and it’s true. The current forecast for 2012 is almost $8 billion in spending (only in USA).
But the main reason to post this text is to talk about Halloween in the past, the origins of this celebration. What I notice is a mix of ancient celebrations that came to be in the modern observance that everyone knows. Some sources can connect Halloween with the Celtics, others with Catholic Roman celebrations, and other sources say that Halloween emerged from Indians beliefs, but all of them are related to the dead and ghosts.
Celtics’ beliefs are related to something evil that returns to Earth and could make damages to their bodies or even to their crops. So they usually had bonfires and wore costumes. Also they believed that their priests had the ability and power to fight with those ghosts.
Romans (Catholics) celebrated the passing of the dead during the day known as “Feralia” and a second day to celebrate the Goddess of Fruit and Trees (Pomona). The symbology used in this celebration was apples, and maybe from this celebration the tradition of bobbing for apples was born.
When Europeans came to America, they brought many types of Halloween beliefs and joined them with Indians beliefs. A new Halloween was created that included parties, celebrations of the harvest, stories of dead, fortune telling, singing, and dancing. Kids began joining in this celebration only in the beginning of 20th century with their trick-or- treating and dressing up in costumes.
I can’t talk about Halloween without saying anything about the first picture that pops up in my mind when I hear the word Halloween: the Jack-o’- lantern, the strange lantern that is typically carved pumpkins, originally from Europe and carved from other vegetables (In Scotland and Ireland, they used to carve turnips and in England, they carved beets).
Now, it’s time to start buying all kind of candies, decorate the house, and be prepared for the kids on October 31st!
Trick or treat? !!!!!!!!
