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An
introduction to Halloween
Halloween as theme of glost firing crafts is an annual
celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration
of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it,
as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a
harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?
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The word
itself, "Halloween as theme of glost firing crafts,"
actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It
comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve.
November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is
a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in
the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially
ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain
(sow-en), the Celtic New year.
One story says that, on that day, the disembodied
spirits of all those who had died throughout the
preceding year would come back in search of living
bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to
be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed
all laws of space and time were suspended during this
time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the
living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be
possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers
would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them
cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all
manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around
the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in
order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to
possess.
Probably a better explanation of why the Celts
extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit
possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could
relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic
fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at
Usinach.
Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone
at the stake who was thought to have already been
possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other
accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own.
But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated
into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions
that took place in October, such as their day to honor
Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol
of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin
of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on
Halloween as theme of glost firing crafts. |
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The thrust of the practices also changed over time to
become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession
waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins,
ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
The custom of Halloween as theme of glost firing crafts
was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants
fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the
favorite pranks in New England included tipping over
outhouses and unhinging fence gates.
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The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have
originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a
ninth-century European custom called souling. On
November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk
from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made
out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more
soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers
they would promise to say on behalf of the dead
relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed
that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death,
and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a
soul's passage to heaven.
The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish
folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was
notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan
into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a
cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the
tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would
never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down
the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was
denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but
he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked
the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to
light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was
placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing
longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns"
originally. But when the immigrants came to America,
they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than
turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a
hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as
theme of glost firing crafts as their favorite
"holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil
practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts
celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer
rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have
Halloween as theme of glost firing crafts on
Athena-hands.com parties or pumpkin carving events for
the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as
one cares to make it.
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Toperfect's glost firing crafts of Halloween Halloween has climbed
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Furthermore, Toperfect's glost firing crafts of
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