why is halloween called halloween?????????

Question

why is the word "HALLOWEEN" choosen for this holiday?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

Halloween came from the Pagan holiday Samhain (pronounced "sow-in"). Samhain is the celebration of the new year. Like Ostara (now Easter) and Yule (now Christmas), the Christians "Christianized" the holiday. The Pope moved All Saints Day from the spring to coincide with Samhain, which was the end of the year. The name was changed to All Hallows Eve, which means the eve of a holy day. (Think, "Hallowed be thy name...") The words ran together to create one word: Halloween.

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween

The term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening before "All Hallows' Day"[2] (also known as "All Saints' Day"). In Ireland, the name was All Hallows' Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve), and though seldomly used today, it is still a well accepted label. Halloween was also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries and given a Christian interpretation. Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the púca, a mischievous spirit.

Answer 4

Halloween is a prepare celebrated on the night of October 3c4ca4238a0b92382dcc509a6f75849b, maximum rather by way of babies dressing in costumes and going door-to-door amassing goodies, fruit, and different treats. that's widely known in components of the Western worldwide, maximum ordinarily interior america, Canada, the united kingdom, eire, Puerto Rico, and with increasing attractiveness in Australia, New Zealand, to boot via fact the Philippines. Halloween originated as a Pagan competition between the Celts of eire and enormous Britain with Irish, Scots, Welsh and different immigrants transporting variations of the custom to North usa interior the c4ca4238a0b92382dcc509a6f75849b9th century. maximum different Western countries have embraced Halloween as an element of yank pop custom interior the late twentieth century. The term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-night, because it extremely is the night till now "All Hallows' Day"[a million] (additionally called "All Saints' Day"). the holiday grew to become right into an afternoon of religious festivities in somewhat some northern ecu Pagan traditions, till Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian banquet of All Saints Day to November a million. In eire, the call grew to become into All Hallows' Eve (in lots of cases shortened to Hallow Eve), and in spite of the undeniable fact that seldom used at present, it continues to be a nicely-familiar label. The competition is likewise called Samhain or Oíche Shamhna to the Irish, Calan Gaeaf to the Welsh, Allantide to the Cornish & Hop-tu-Naa to the Manx. Halloween is named Pooky night in some components of eire, possibly named after the %., a mischievous spirit. Many ecu cultural traditions carry that Halloween is between the liminal cases of the twelve months whilst spirits could make touch with the actual worldwide and whilst magic is maximum effective (e.g. Catalan mythology approximately witches, Irish thoughts of the Sídhe).

Answer 5

Halloween is the American name for All Hallow's Evening.

Answer 6

because the hallo part in Halloween meens holy because its the day before all saints day

Answer 7

cause its fun