why do we celebrate halloween the way we do?

Question

Why do we dress our children up in silly costumes and send them out to pester our neighbors for candy? Shouldn't this be a holiday for "celebrating" the dead? I'm looking for good answers, possibly with websites to support those answers.

Answer 1

Many cultures have similar origins, but I beleive it was bvrought here mainly bu the Celtic or Irish people. These are pretty good explanations that I found:



Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its 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 the 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 that, 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.

Probably 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 the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the 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 probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was 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 the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had 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 that 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.

From: http://wilstar.com/holidays/hallown.htm


2000 Years of Halloween History

The history of Halloween goes back more than 2,000 years. The earliest celebrations of Halloween were among the Celtic who lived in the areas which are now Ireland, Great Britain and Northern France.

The Celts were people who worshiped the beauty of nature. They worshiped the Sun God and believed that without him, they would not live. They also worshipped Samhain (pronounced sow-in) who was the lord of the dead and of the cold, dark winter season. They believed that on October 31 Samhain would call together all of the dead and these souls would take on the shape of an animal. They believed that all creatures wandered the Earth on that night. This was called the Vigil of Samhain.

The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. As already mentioned the Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated the festival of Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth.

The Druids, or Celtic priests, would build fires on the hilltops in belief that the large fires would help to strengthen the Sun God, and give him power enough to overcome the lord of darkness so that the sun season could continue. They believed that the fires were sacred, therefore they burned dried crops and sacrificed animals to help strengthen the Sun God. At midnight they stop worshipping the Sun God and start to worship Samhain because he will be the ruler for the next six months. This is the starting of the new year (1st November). They would perform ceremonies through the night to ask the spirits to tell the future of the upcoming year. For clans entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter. In the morning each household receives an ember from the fire, this ember is used to start fires in their own homes with the belief that it will ward off evil spirits in the new year. The Celts continued with their ceremonies until they were conquered by the Roman Catholics.

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

Thus the Christian church tried to eliminate the Druid celebration by offering All Saint's Day as a substitute. As Christianity spread over Europe and the British Isles, it attempted to replace the pre-existing pagan cult worship of Apollo, Diana or Ymir, but to no avail. Although the outward forms of such worship disappeared, the belief in these deities did not. They found an outlet during the Middle Ages in the open practice of witchcraft which is presently enjoying a revival in many countries, including the U.S. In Germany the occult is considered more prevalent than in the Middle Ages. The deistic cults held periodic meetings known as witches sabbaths, and it is the same today with October 31st being of more importance.

The Halloween traditions have transpired through the ages from one generation to another. We follow them mostly as did our dads and grandpas. And as this process goes on, much of their originality get distorted with newer additions and alterations. It happens so gradually, spanning over so many ages, that we hardly come to know about these distortions. But most of them whether it be "Trick or Treat", Halloween Costumes, Jack O Lantern and most of them can be traced back to the prevailing myths and practices of 2000 years back.

From: http://twilightbridge.com/festivals/halloween/history.htm



You can find a ton more by searching for "Halloween History" at Yahoo! or your other favorite search engine.

Answer 2

I don't know where you have been doing your research but it is clearly not with anything written by any historian of note. Can I suggest the books written by Ronald Hutton, Professor of History at Bristol University, England and a specialist in pre-Christian European paganism? Particularly "Stations of the Sun". Hutton is a pagan sympathiser but nevertheless concludes that. 1. Halloween originated as the Eve of All Saints Day and there is no historical evidence of any pagan influence., 2. Easter is Christian and it is doubtful that there ever was a goddess called "Eostre" or "Ostara". 3. The date of Christmas was settled long before Christianity reached Norse lands. The date was set in Rome where none of this was of any significance. In any case, Yule could be celebrated any time between early December and late January. The association with Christmas happened because kings and nobles moved their "Yule" feast to Christmas. The reason some Christians, particularly in the USA, don't celebrate Halloween is puritanism. When in charge, puritans attacked a lot of Catholic stuff - including All Saints and its Eve. Anyone who carried on celebrating was denounced as a devil worshipper, a witch or a pagan. Not true, just propaganda but still widely believed.

Answer 3

Halloween has tranformed into what it is in America. Most other countries don't celebrate it, but the have a day for celebrating the dead. It's more like Memorial day. I know France celebrates All Saints day which is nov. 1st, and after halloween.

Answer 4

Here's an article I wrote myself:
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/KBH/95627

The word 'Halloween' is a slimming down of 'All Hallows Eve' or 'All Saint's Day.' All Saints Day is a Catholic celebration held on November 1st in honour of Saints everywhere.

Halloween dates back almost 2000 years ago to the days of the Celtic Druids in Europe. Their New Year was always celebrated on November 1st. This date marked the end of summer and festivals were held in celebration of the passing seasons. One of these festivals was called Samhain (said Sha-Von) and this took place on the day we now recognise as Halloween - October 31st.

Answer 5

Here are some web-links to answer that for you:

www.history.com/minisites/halloween
www.new-life.net/halowen1.htm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
altreligion.about.com/library/weekly/aa101502a.htm
www.featherlessbiped.com/halloween
www.brownielocks.com/halloweenhistory.html
skokielibrary.info/.../kd_read/kd_displays/kd_dsp_2005/halloween.html
dating.meetingland.com/halloween_idx.htm
elsegundousd.com/eshs/bayeagle/features/october/halloween.htm
www.magictricks.com/halloween/historypage.htm
www.neopagan.net/Halloween-Origins.html
www.beliefnet.com/story/47/story_4771_1.html
www.locksley.com/6696/hallows.htm
teacherlink.ed.usu.edu/tlresources/units/.../halloween.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/holidays/halloween/

I included many different sources with different perspectives. Most of them are fine, but I'm having trouble logging onto the history channel one... I included it because you may be able to. One of these is even a very well-researched one from a pastor, dispelling the dark myths and being very open. Another is from neopagans. The last on the list has links to several articles that are of interest. Enjoy and I hope you learn as much as I have!

Answer 6

I just look at it as something fun and exciting for our children to do....it's fun to play pretend and let the whole world see you as something else...(and from what I've seen in those celebrations of the dead, they still dress up..)
Also it's no different than the distortion of Christmas.... Christmas was suppose to be a day for celebrating the bitrth of Jesus (if it's true) but now, some parents let their kids worship some fat guy in a red suit and use it as a threat to con their kids into being good! All in all, we just want to let our kids have fun!

Answer 7

If you're the parent, you choose how to celbrate the holliday. When I was raised halloween was a chance to have fun, and mock that which is supposed to be frightening. And the day we chose to celebrate the dead was memorial day, with a trip to the cementary.

Answer 8

I do not know cause i have never celebrated halloween before.

Answer 9

Because it's fun why else what other holiday can we dress up and be someone else or something else..I don't think it has anything behind anymore it's just a day u can let loose no money or presents invovled just having a good time..