Do you know the origins of Halloween??

Question

Why do the origins of holidays, like Halloween, not bother people????

Answer 1

Yea...it was a pagan festival that just got Americanized..

Answer 2

Halloween is celebrated in many different ways by all sorts of people around the world. Traditionally, it was known as All Hallow's Eve, when the dead were remembered. Over time, it became cultural. For Americans, it became commercialized. Unfortunately, the emphasis on this commercialized holiday has shifted from the little cowboys and Indians to a much more evil and pointed attraction to all things hideous and pagan. Satan has undoubtedly made this commercialized holiday into something that has subtly focused on dressing kids up as ugly demonic creatures.



Samhain. Many believe the festival of Samhain to have been the beginning of the Celtic year. At Samhain, farmers brought livestock in from summer pastures and people gathered to build shelter for winter. The festival also had religious significance and people burned fruits, vegetables, grain, and possibly animals as offerings to the gods. In ancient Celtic stories, Samhain was a magical time of transition when important battles were fought and fairies cast spells. It was a time when the barriers between the natural world and the supernatural were broken. The Celts believed that the dead could walk among the living at this time. During Samhain, the living could visit with the dead, who they believed held secrets of the future. Scholars believe that Halloween's association with ghosts, food, and fortunetelling began with these pagan customs more than 2,000 years ago.



All Saints' and All Souls' Day. Many of the customs of the pagan Celts survived even after the people became “Christianized.” In the 800's A.D., the church established All Saints' Day on November 1. About two hundred years later, it added All Souls' Day on November 2. This day was set aside for people to pray for friends and family who had died. People made many of the old pagan customs part of this Christian holy day. Some people put out food for their ancestors or they left a lantern burning in the window so that ghosts could find their way home for the night. Through the years, various regions of Europe developed their own Halloween customs. In Wales, for example, each person put a white stone near the Halloween fire at night and then checked in the morning to see whether the stone was still there. If it was, the person would live another year.



Halloween in the United States. Many early American settlers came from England and they brought various beliefs about ghosts and witches with them. In the 1800's, many immigrants from Ireland and Scotland arrived in the United States and introduced their Halloween traditions. Other groups added their own cultural influences to Halloween customs. German immigrants brought a vivid witchcraft lore, and Haitian and African peoples brought their native voodoo beliefs about black cats, fire, and witchcraft.

Answer 3

Yes I do. It comes from the pagan faith, like the Easter bunny and Santa clause. Halloween was started by pagans that thought on October 31 all the dead people would come back to life as ghosts and rome the Earth and possess the people they found. So they dressed up as ghouls. goblins, and ghosts to blend in with the dead ones so their souls wouldn't be stolen. They also decorated their homes for this same reason.

The jackalanten comes from Ireland and there this guy had died and he couldn't go to heaven or hell so he romed all around Ireland with fire in his hands. People were so scared they decided to take a pumpkin and cave a face into it and put a burning coal inside. They then but the glowing heads on their porches to scare Jack of the Lantern away.

Answer 4

Why should the origins bother me? Isn't Easter about someone who was brutally killed and then came back from the dead? Religions are like that. I like traditions and festivals like Halloween and the Day of the Dead.

Halloween originated under a different name as a Pagan festival among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain with Irish, Scots, Welsh and other immigrants transporting versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late twentieth century.

Halloween is celebrated in most parts of the Western world, most commonly in the United States, Canada, the UK, Ireland, and with increasing popularity in Australia and New Zealand. In recent years, Halloween has also been celebrated in parts of Western Europe, such as Belgium, France and Spain.

The term Halloween, and its older rendering Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening of/before "All Hallows' Day"[1] (also known as "All Saints' Day"). The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints Day from May 13 to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although we now consider All Saints (or Hallows) day to be on the day after Halloween, they were, at that time, considered to be the same day.

In Ireland, the name was All Hallows' Eve (often shortened to Hallow Eve), and though seldom used today, it is still a well-accepted label, albeit somewhat esoteric. The festival is also known as Samhain or Oíche Shamhna to the Irish, Calan Gaeaf to the Welsh, Allantide to the Cornish and Hop-tu-Naa to the Manx. Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the púca, a mischievous spirit.

Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when spirits can make contact with the physical world and when magic is most potent (e.g. Catalan mythology about witches, Irish tales of the Sídhe).

Answer 5

Halloween is pure evil. But, it is also the biggest outreach opportunity for our church. I encourage you to take something that is BAD and turn it into GOOD. Our church uses Halloween as an opportunity to bring people in to tell about the Good News of Jesus Christ by way of a carnival we put together. We had over 800 people show up on Halloween night! As a result, 20 people came to Christ that week. What an awesome outreach opportunity!

Answer 6

I know the origins of Halloween. To answer your question not everybody is Christian. Halloween is a pagan holiday but that doesn't bother me.

Answer 7

there's a problem with Halloween?

It is the eve of All Hallows, the first day of October also known as All Saints Day when it was Christianized. a time of rememberance for the dead and rituals to thank the spirits that look after the family. The night before was thought to bring down the barriers between our world and the spirit world and hence it was easier to make contact with otehr-wordly beings.

Why should this bother me?

Answer 8

Yes. It's a harvest festival. Things in the field were sufficiently ripe enough to come in, for the fall harvest. And that is the time to do it, so you can use them before they freeze. So they were brought in.

The cattle, and other animals, that were all fattened and ready to eat, had to be, because first, people needed to eat. And second, there was no excess room for them. During the warmer months they multiplied.

So people had a tremendous sense of guilt about this. That set about the idea of appeasing there restless spirits.

And that set about the idea that the spirits of their loved ones were out in the cold fields as well, and they should feel welcomed to come inside and get warm!

So food was left on doorsteps for them! A little milk and cookies.

People who were out walked stopped by houses, who had a surplus this time of year. These passersby were hungry because of the cold and needed to eat.

They were received with Great Hospitality. Now, this is not so disturbing, is it. I find it comforting.

Answer 9

If Halloween bothers you. Then do not celebrate it. Simple.

The christian faiths, mainly the left wing versions, have twisted halloween by linking it to satanism. Which in turn gets linked to the "pagan" traditions. The unknowing lump everything together into all evil.

Nothing can be further from the truth. Blame your Roman Catholic ROOTS...thats right 99% of all christian religions are rooted to RC...So, they joined all saints day to All hallows eve to bring in more "pagans" to christianity.

Thanks

Answer 10

As it is, Halloween has ancient roots in demonism. The date of the death of the children of the demons (the Nephilim of Genesis 6:1-5) and others who died in the flood became Halloween.

The druids of Europe transformed that into a night in which the dead came back to life to haunt the living on that one night. Despite the silly costumes that people buy for their children and the candy that is purchased and distributed to visiting children in these costumes, the demonic influence of this holiday is clear. Movies released during this time are always with spiritistic themes. TV shows feature episodes with these themes. Songs are played on the radio, and advertisements of all kinds will reference the "undead", "vampires", "ghosts" and "witches" all through the month of October.

Just because candy is involved, it doesn't make it innocent. The human children who died in the flood died because their parents did not permit them to go into the ark, as they also refused to do - so their deaths are their parents' fault, not God's.

If we set a bad example for our children, and make a demon themed celebration into a fun thing, they won't know any better, unless we tell them.

And, because of this holiday, which is by no means a holy day, they will be susceptible to believe, as many do, in that old lie that Satan told Eve: "You shall not surely die." - and in the lie that people are still alive walking around as ghosts, and the lie that other people are extending their lives and powers by following demon rites and practices.

My opinion on this is - BEWARE!! Become knowledgeable and follow the example of Jehovah's Witnesses and the Bible. Halloween is based on deceptive lies, that can take our lives away, because Satan is a manslayer and the father of the lie. (Genesis 3:4, John 8:44)

Origin of Halloween "All Hallows Eve" http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/11019... The Truth About Halloween http://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/10201...

Answer 11

It's too bad that the christians stole it and instead of being Samhain anymore, it's candy-grubbing time. The origins are of course, Pagan, and that is the time of year when witches and other magickal practitioners cast a circle and are able to speak more clearly to the spirits of old.

The pumpkin thing is christian too. Some dude named Jack carries a lantern as a ghost on earth until judgement day, in a nutshell.