2006-11-02 05:46:21 · 5 answers · asked by summersweetheart_16 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Halloween is short for "All Hallows Eve", which is another way of saying, "The day before All Saints Day".
2006-11-02 05:50:13 · answer #1 · answered by nondescript 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Halloween is a popular holiday that takes place on October 31. In the United States and Canada, children dress in costumes and go trick-or-treating. Many people carve jack-o'-lanterns out of pumpkins. Halloween parties for children feature fortunetelling, mock haunted houses, scary stories, and games, such as bobbing for apples. People decorate their houses and yards with images of ghosts, skeletons, witches, black cats, bats, and other symbols of Halloween. Many communities across the United States also hold parades and other celebrations for Halloween.
Halloween developed from an ancient pagan festival celebrated by Celtic people over 2,000 years ago in the area that is now the United Kingdom, Ireland, and northwestern France. The festival was called Samhain (pronounced SOW ehn), which means "summer's end." The festival marked the beginning of the dark winter season and was celebrated around November 1. In the 800's, the Christian church established a new holiday, All Saints' Day, on this date. All Saints' Day was also called All Hallows'. Hallow means saint, or one who is holy. The evening before All Hallows' was known as All Hallows' Eve, or as it came to be abbreviated, All Hallow e'en. This name was eventually shortened to Halloween.
2006-11-02 05:52:11 · answer #2 · answered by barrett_shawn 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
All Saints Day is currently the day we celebrate all saints. Specifically for those saints without their own feast day.
It was formerly called All Hallows Day and celebrated only martyrs. Hallows is an archaic word for Holy. The blood of martyrs makes things very holy.
Catholics often have vigils. That is when one sits up all night worshipping God. The Vigil of All Hallows was called All Hallow's Eve.
Some believe that All Hallow's Day was created to counter Samhain. That's why you're getting all those responses about pagan origins...
The idea of dressing up began during the time of the Black Death. In the 1300's. The part about going door to door for candy began in the early 1600's when the English began to celebrate Guy Fawkes's day burning a Catholic in effigy. The kids would go around asking for a "penny for the Guy" so they could raise funds to make their effigy. November 5th is the day they do this.
The whole thing came over to the US with the Irish Catholics. The name of the feast day eventually became All Saints Day when "hallows" became too archaic.
2006-11-02 06:04:33 · answer #3 · answered by Max Marie, OFS 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Christians were always sanctifying the calendar by "Christianizing' pagan feasts. Such was Samhain - pronounced "sowen" - the Autumnal Druid festival where it is believed that the dead can cross back over into the land of the living. As part of Samhain ritual, sweets were left in the woods to appease the spirits and keep them from playing tricks and haunting the living.
When Pope Urban VI declared the feast of All Saints, he placed it at Samhain time...and co-opted some of the local practices. It was hard for Christian missionaries (in the land of the Celts and all over the world) to get people to drop local customs and beliefs...Samhain was a biggie to the Driuds.
Halloween simply means "All Hallow's (All Saint's) Eve".
2006-11-02 05:54:49 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
it was once a pagan holiday .. adopted by christianity to convert followers of paganism
it was given the name all saints day ... and the night before was all hallows eve ( shortened to halloween )
the dressing up in scary masks etc originated in ireland as the belief was the veil between this world and the next was thinner ... and the masks were to disguise ourself as demons if they slipped through , so that they would think we were one of them
2006-11-02 05:51:52 · answer #5 · answered by Peace 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋