What's the story behind Halloween?

Question

How did it all started? How did it turn into such a celebrated occassion? Why is it also called "All Saints Day"?

Answer 1

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But in 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.

One story says on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

A better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.

The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

The Jack-o-lantern custom comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

According to folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but was also denied access to Hell because he tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.

The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.

Answer 2

The Story Behind Halloween

Answer 3

History Behind Halloween

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What's the story behind Halloween?
How did it all started? How did it turn into such a celebrated occassion? Why is it also called "All Saints Day"?

Answer 5

Halloween has something for everyone. Children scarf candy. Teens smash pumpkins. And dogs go bonkers whenever the doorbell rings. But how did the wild and crazy celebration get its start? We checked in with the History Channel to find out.
The holiday's origins date back to "the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain." Roughly 2,000 years ago, a people known as the Celts lived in the area now divided among three modern-day countries: the United Kingdom, Northern France, and Ireland. The Celts began their new year on November 1, meaning October 31 was their New Year's Eve. According the History Channel, "the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred" that night.

Bonfires and animal sacrifices were common, as were costumes "typically consisting of animal heads and skins." Eventually, the Romans conquered the Celts, and Samhain was combined with other holidays. Later, as Christianity became more powerful, Pope Boniface IV put a new tilt on the event. He designated November 1 "All Saints' Day" -- a day when followers could honor saints and martyrs. This celebration was also called "All-Hallows," and the night before (October 31) was known as "All-Hallows' Eve." Later, it became known as Halloween.

These days, Halloween is mostly known as a day when kids throw dental hygiene out the window and go hog-wild with candy. The origin of trick-or-treating is somewhat disputed, but we invite you to check out this essay by Isaac Bonewits. All the possibilities are covered with a minimum amount of trickery.

Answer 6

Halloween originated in Ireland as the pagan Celtic harvest festival, Samhain. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.
Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when the spiritual world can make contact with the physical world and when magic is most potent (e.g. Catalan mythology about witches).

Answer 7

It's the Celtic new year; the day the veil separating the worlds of the living and dead are thinnest; thus the dead can more easily roma the world. It was also the day the year-god died (corresponding to the shortening of days); prior to being reborn at Yule, rthe winter solstice.

All Saints Day was a Christian attempt to replace a pagan holiday with a Christian one; as they did with others (Christmas/Yule, etc).

Answer 8

A catholic pope long ago wanted to baptized a lot of heathen Germans into the church so he told them since you guys like to hang skulls on trees to worship your gods. I will let you keep those practices. We will just call it halloween. and you are all now good catholics. amen.so they were able to keep the skull thingy going and go to church too.

Answer 9

The day 1800 people did not have enough food for there family so they dress up and go out and as for other people food. . the reason they hide they face they did not want the people they asked for food to no who they were. they might make fun of them

Answer 10

religious reasons