halloween? i know it's an american thing, not sure what it's all about.?

Question

being a humble english person would love love to know what it actually means. But in the meantime my daughter want's me to cook pumpkin pie? can anyone help please ?

thanks ducker 918, will try recipe.

Answer 1

Here is the story how I know it:

The Celtic Pagens in Ireland had a holiday on Oct. 31 called Samhain. The Christians that wanted to convert the Pagens convinced the Pagens that they could celebrate the Christian hoilday, All Saints Day on Nov. 1st, by having a party the night before (conveniently coinciding with the exisiting holiday). So the Pagens celebrated the same way, but now they were Christians.

With the Potato famine in the mid-1800s, there was an influx of Irish immigrants that brought a lot of their culture to the United Sates. That is why Halloween is a major holiday here.

That's as much as I know off the top of my head. The Wiki article has more. You'll probably want to read about the modern celebration with the costumes and candy.

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

Answer 2

Halloween is not an American thing, they have just managed to make a commercial holiday out of.

Halloween, is the eve of All Hallowes. In pagan terms it is the end of the Celtic year. As the old year dies back the veil to the other realms is at it's finest and it was traditional to communicate with the ancestors, wish the souls of the recent dead good passage and use the magical and divination arts.

Originally lanterns were made out of turnips. The pumpkin being an imported vegtable. The mask like faces were used to ward away the bad or negative spirits.

Apples and nuts were used in ritual games to represent life, death, fertility and wisdom.

In the USA this has filtered down into trick or treating and a fancy dress party.

Answer 3

The tradition actually started in England, but it gained popularity in the States.
November 1 is All Soul's Day inthe Christian. Souls are also known as Hallows. Therefore, the night before is All Hallow's Eve... and the name eventually degenerated into Halloween. This night is supposedly the night all the wicked and forlorn spirits roam the earth and work their evil magic. The best defense is to pretend to be one of them already, and dress like a ghost/spirit/spook yourself. That's why people starting dressing up in costumes and acting like greedy bandits, demanding treats unless they perform an evil trick on you.

Those are sort of the traditions behind it. Nowadays, it's a pretty popular American holiday. Kids dress up in costumes and, as soon as night falls, go door-to-door in the neighborhood and say "trick or treat!" The person then gives them each a small piece of candy. Naughty teenagers sometimes prefer to play tricks by covering a tree with garlands of toilet paper or scaring their friends. It's the best night for telling ghost stories or visiting haunted houses. Adults get into the fun, too, and wear costumes to work or parties.
Jack-o-lanterns are a big tradition, too. There was some old tale about a stingy man who escaped hell and wandered around with a candle in a turnip, looking to get away. When the story came here, pumpkins were much larger and native to the land, so people started putting the candle in a pumpkin, and carving a scary face into the pumpkin so the light could shine through.

The pumpkins usually go bad before you can cook them, so the traditional food for Halloween is candy, not pumpkin pie. We save pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving in November. But any cookbook should have recipes for pumpkin pie if you want to try it.

Answer 4

It started out as "All Hallows Eve". It's the night the dead rise and bring the living back with them. They used to dress up in scary costumes so the dead would think they were one of them. This is at least how they used to celebrate it. It has since become a time when kid's dress up and go door to door getting candy. Adults use it to party. Make sure to get a bag of candy to pass out to kids or they will egg your house.

Pumpkin pie out of a pumpkin doesn't last long (couple days). You can get a can of pumpkin at any grocery store and that has a good recipe on it.

Answer 5

The Celtics' mythology says that with the coming of winter(a season of the dead,) there is a night in which the spirits of the dead could freely roam about with humans. Some of these spirits would inflict suffering and violence upon man. To appease the spirits and the gods that were worshipped, the Celtic people would put out their best food offerings on the doorstep. (those offers were the origins of trick-or-treating...)
Irish immigrants brought halloween to America in the 1800s.
Halloween comes from the term All Hollows Day (all-hollow-even) which is a day before All Saints Day

Answer 6

Well I don't think it's an American thing 'per se'. It was always known as All Hallows Eve and was a sort of non-event in the UK where you could use your imagination and quietly wonder at the spirits of the dead being abroad on this night. The Americans have made it into a full blown pagaent with kids running around dressed up and begging for more of the sweet stuff that they don't need and chucking eggs at windows and scaring the hell out of OAP's if they don't dish the candy..somehow takes all the mystery out of it doesn't it.
Just another money making idea from the good 'ol USA...God I sound cynical!

Answer 7

halloween is about all hallows eve. Theres been a myth that witches used to go around and find children to put in their stew. The had rather large bags to keep them in. (-candy bags as known today-). They would lure the children by candy.(-reason of passing out candy-) So they could capture them. The kids wanted the candy but didn't want to get killed. So they dressed up (-how the costumes came into place-). Figuring the kids were monsters they gave them candy and not eating them. So trick or treat is kinda a trick to get the witches to give them candy to eat and the treat is either the witches treating them selfs a yummy children stew or the kids getting the treats from the witches.

Answer 8

http://www.pumpkinpatchesandmore.org/pumpkinpie.php
heres a way to make pumpkin pie for you complete with pictures! I won't answer the rest of the question because it already got covered by everybody else ( for the most part). Heres another link to a complete explanation of halloween history and just about anything else you want to know about it....omigosh I just love this holiday!
http://www.halloween.com/

Answer 9

Halloween is the an American holiday similar to the spanish holiday Day Of the Dead.
It's a night where ghosts and spirits can freely roam the earth.
Of course, it's fictional, in our country.
Just another excuse to make Americans spend money.
Kids dress up in costumes and most family traditions consist of carving pumpkins and trick or treating.
be safe...if you let your daughter trick or treat, go with her and to only safe neighborhoods, and check all her candy before she eats it, to make sure it wasn't tampered with.

oh-and you should rent Hocus Pocus...I think you and your daughter would like that movie

Answer 10

Far from being 'an american thing' Halloween comes from the ancient pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced saween) when it was believed the dead could come back to visit their loved ones. Some people lef out food and drink for any 'visitors' , while others painted their faces and wore maks to scare off unwanted guests. modern pagans and witches still honour the dead and our ancestors on Samhain today.