You should go ahead an watch my video while you're here! I talk about all of this, in less detail. But I look cute, so you should watch.
BASICALLY, HALLOWEEN IS DEVIL WORSHIP DAY AND IF YOU DRESS UP OR DECORATE OR CELEBRATE IT IN ANY WAY, YOU LOVE SATAN.
...just kidding ^____^
Let's start off with the origins to this holiday:
Halloween is one of the oldest holidays celebrated in the United States. It is also the second most commercially successful holiday, after Christmas. Halloween's origin steams from the old Celtic holiday of Samhain (sah-win). It fell on October 31- November 1st ish and marked the end of summer and harvest. It was the start of the dark days of the year, and the time when things die (trees, leaves, you get what I mean), making it also a symbol of death. To celebrate this day, the Celtics would have huge bonfires to show that the darkness wasn't going to stop them. On Samhain, the Celtics also believed that the veil between the living and the dead was the thinnest, and that the dead would walk amongst the living, taking over bodies and whatnot. So, to keep themselves safe, they would dress us as ghouls and ghosts to try and trick the spirits into believing they weren't human so that they would not be possessed.
The Halloween tradition that stemmed from this is the day if falls on, as well as dressing up like the dead. Along with that, this is where bats come into play. The large bon fires that they would have would attract swarms of bugs. The bugs would attract the bats. Since bats are black, and they only come out at night, the only time a person would ever see a bat before electricity, was when there was one of these big bon fires.
Moving on a few years, Christians are now in the Celtic regions. Samhain is a pagan ritual, and the Christians were purely interested in converting people to Christianity. A way they did this was by adopting similar rituals, so that pagans would convert more comfortably. Christians already had the holiday of All Hallows Day or All Saints Day. This happened in May. This holiday is COMPLETELY INDEPENDENT of the pagan holiday of Samhain. However, when Christianity spread throughout Europe, it was important to try and convert the pagans to Christianity. So, in order to do this, they tried to make pagans more comfortable in the Christian religion by moving their All Saints Day, or All Hallows Days to the day after Samhain, making Samhain now All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween!
In early Catholic belief, souls could go to purgatory, and a way to get them out faster was to pray for them. People would go door to door asking for asking for soul cakes in response for praying for the giver's souls. This is where trick or treating originally comes from. I know "trick or treat" has a different connotation, but I don't know it! Comment and let me know if you know!
Now, when people started immigrating to the new world, all of these European traditions got mixed and blended together. Catholics would marry Irish, etc and that's where most of the Halloween we know today comes from. The date, trick or treating, dressing up, its connection with death and the afterlife, bats, and its name.
Since then, we have had a few more things that are connected with Halloween.
Jack-O-Lanterns:
From what I learned, this comes from the old Irish folktale about Stingy Jack. He tricked the devil into climbing a tree. Then, he marked a cross on the tree, so the devil couldn't come down. The devil told him take if he let him down, he will not allow him access to hell when he died. Thinking this was a great compromise, he let the devil down. When Jack died, however, he wasn't good enough to get into Heaven, so he tried at hell, but the devil kept his promise. Jack was stuck in the darkness between heaven and hell. the devil gave him an ember to light his way, and he hallowed out his gourd, his favorite food, and placed it inside. Then people say they could see him roaming, holding his lit up gourd. People later began to place these gourds, along with other vegetables, outside their homes to ward of spirits of even Stingy Jack. After some time, people would put scry faces in these vegetables to scare people. In America, pumpkins were more common, bigger, and easier to hallow out. Now you have halloween pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns!
Orange and Black:
Orange and black stem from the things they represent. Orange is the color of the harvest, and the harvest time. Black is the color of death. There you go, Black and Orange!
Monsters, Vampires, Witches etc:
Each of these things are connected with death some how. As they came into literature, and urban legends, etc, they were also integrated into Halloween's idea of death and the after life. Witches during this time also became the witches we think of today, with their pitch forks and cauldrons, etc.
So there you have it! Halloween for you all! I hope you enjoyed this post about halloween's story. Share it with your friends.
OOTD:
LOL, my entire outfit was thrifted. I have no idea how much it cost. THANKS FOR READING <3
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