what is the meaning of Halloween?

Question

i am trying to write a book of children can anyone help me?

Answer 1

Here's the history:
"Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).

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."

That's from the first source. Please check out the other sources for more info.

Answer 2

Halloween is the eve of All Hallowes day. It replaces the pre Christian festival of New Years Eve.
In Europe the nomadic and agricultural life was governed by the seasons. It signifies the end of the growing and yielding seasons, or as the Celts called it Summers end (Samhain).
As the Earth turns into late autumn and winter much of it goes into dormancy or gestation until the rebirth of the early spring, the days also grow noticably shorter.
This is why the festival is associated with death and the occult secrets of the world.
It was believed that at this time the veil between the worlds of the earthly and the spirit was at it's finest. So it was also used as a period of communication between the two. Hence the practises of ritual magic, divination, etc.
The masks and lanterns made were to scare away the negative or bad spirits that roamed freely in this period.
These were originally made from turnips and swedes. Pumkins were later imported to the British Isles and Europe.
All Hallowes means "all that is sacred." This was the Christian answer to stop people carrying out their "Devilish" customs.
The pagan attitude to death and the spirit world was considerably different to the later view, so it was a time of lament for the ancestors but also a celebration of the life that was to come.

Answer 3

Hallowe'en derived from All Hallows' Eve - All Hallows, now called All Saints' Day falls on 1st November, rthus the eve is on 31 October. It's a very old pre-Christian tradition which was co-opted by the Church when the first Christian calendar simply placed the modern Christian celebrations on or near the old pagan ones. That way converts didn't have to give up all their traditional celebrations. Thus Christmas fell just four days after the winter solstice, etc.

Any it was believed that the souls of the dead left the grave to enter the next life (or Heaven in the Christian era) on the eve of All Saints' Day and that some of the dead would have preferred to stay behind on earth. The modern tradition of dressing as witches, etc derives in part from the way that our gaelic ancestors disguised themselves in order to scare the dead away from their old haunts and back to the portal to the next life.

There's a lot more one could say but so much information is available on the internet already that any search engine will offer you hours if not days of reading, a lot of it somewhat contradictory as the feast is so ancient as to be confused across national borders and between pagan and christian tradition.

Answer 4

As john says Samhain is Irish for November. But it was not a Celti feast. The Celts lived on mainland Europe spreading east from Rumania across to France. They conquered Rome 390BC. Chineese history records them as the barbarians. Today we can still identify them from thier blood group"A".
The Teutoni peoples of scandinavia and the islands have existed for at least 12000 years. The Romans only recognised them in 103BC, although they had known of them for much longer.
Back to Halloween. This was the festival of the opening of the gates of the underworld. The Teutoni people were the first peoples to believe in an after life. This was later copied by the real celts (romans). The reason that the Teutonis succesfully wiped out 2 entire roman armies (105)BC, was that they saw death as a moving on to another world. (roman polacy is never acknowledge a superior race, just destroy it if you can) (Classic example is the Dacians)
After the pope (Adrian) issued a decree in 1155 stating that the Irish people were to be considered pagan, as they didn`t pay allegance to rome(give cash to the pope). And would by his decree become enslaved to the catholic English. At this point in history there is an influx of saints and feast, such as Brigid and the feast of Imbolc. Now the feast of St. Brigit on the 1st Feb.

Answer 5

Halloween is the Celtic New Year, that has been victimized and villified by the Catholic religion (look it up...its the truth), then they tried to encompass it by creating All Saints' day. You go check out this website, its got all kinds of helpful information on it, just make sure to click around, so that you can get the true history of Halloween.

http://www.neopagan.net/Halloween-Origins.html

Answer 6

I think that the meaning of halloween is that you get to dress up and act like anything you want. You get to act like somebody other than yourself for a change. For little kids, though, Halloween just means candy for the kids with the good costumes after having said "Trick or Treat!" I really hope that you find what you're looking for!

Answer 7

Halloween means Holy Eve, it is the feast day of the holy souls, it is a time for remembering the dead and praying for their souls . RIP

Answer 8

Spirits of the dead were believed to roam freely. a day known as "The Day of the Dead," relatives would help their deceased loved ones complete a safe journey to the afterlife. People would paint or carve scary faces on turnips and disguise themselves in costumes to scare away the evil spirits that were thought to be there that night.

Answer 9

The meaning of halloween is to have fun with your friends, go crazy and be happy .

Answer 10

The 'eve' before All Hallows day or all Saint's day.