What do you really know about Halloween?

Question

Just give me concise fact,not fiction.
Thanks

Answer 1

It is a day to remember the dead. In other countries they set food out to feed the souls of the dead, we wear costumes to hide that we are "alive " so we can then see the souls and they won't be afraid of us

Answer 2

Ancient Origins
Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

I'm pagan myself and I can't wait til samhain to have the celebration.

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, 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. 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 Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

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.

Answer 3

years ago the celtic preists were called druids and did barbaric and inhumane sacrifices the celtic people believed that all the spirits of the people who had died before would come on Oct. 31st which was the eve of the new year Nov.1st. The village people would dress up in ghoulish costumes and parade about the streets to scare off the spirits. Decades later some catholic monks became very intrigued by the druids and decided to name the new year after these spirits Dia de los Muertos (all saints day) Nov.1st It is a pagan day and should never be celebrated by someone who regards God!

Answer 4

I'll look it up and come back.Under the heading “Halloween,” the “Encyclopædia Britannica” says: “Oct. 31 was also the eve of the new year in both Celtic and Anglo-Saxon times and one of the ancient fire festivals. . . . Since November ushers in the darkest and most barren half of the year, the autumnal festival acquired sinister significance, with ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, fairies and demons of all kinds roaming abroad.”

The festival was held in honor of Samhain, the Celtic lord of the dead, who it was believed, allowed the souls of those who died in the preceding year to return home that evening. Festivities included building huge bonfires to chase away the witches and demons. Sacrifices of crops, animals and even humans were made to appease the souls of the deceased. The people also engaged in fortune-telling and wore costumes made of animal heads and skins.

The Romans also contributed some of their pagan rituals to the customs of the Celts whom they conquered. One of their autumn festivals held in honor of Pomona, the goddess of trees and fruits, probably accounted for the prominent use of apples in Halloween festivities—apple-bobbing and apple-on-a-string, for example.

Answer 5

It is a celabration dating back to prehistory that celabrates the harvest as well as the one night of the year when the spirits of the dead can come out of the underworld to frolic in the world of the living.
It started in the dim red dawn of time

Answer 6

fact... people like to have fun... kids like candy...and people like to be scared... if you are looking for the history of halloween then i suggest instead of asking a question on the computer.. go to a google search and see what you can find there

Answer 7

Its easy to scare youngin's on halloween, Jump out from bhind something, and some mite wet their britches

Answer 8

I know that my birthday is 4 days after it!

Answer 9

it is really called all hollow's eve. The costumes were made up later.

Answer 10

It's this coming Tuesday.