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History of Halloween

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Oct 19, 2008
by: jadelubeck
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Halloween started a few thousand years ago. It starrted in Ireland with the ancient Celts. October 31st was suppose to be the end of there there agricutural year. They had a large festival to celebrate the "new year". During the festival the Celts believed that their ancestors could come back visit with the living relatives. The Celt would leave food for their relatives, and offer them a place to stay. They did this because they feared the ancestors and thought that if they didnt it would make them unhappy, and that they would hurt you. "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." (http://www.history.com/minisites/halloween/viewPage?pageId=713) Later as Christanity spread November 1st became all Saints Day, and the eve (Oct. 31) was "Allhallowmas". Which is what we now call Halloween.

 

Comments

HALLOWEEN!!

Submitted by ctai on Mon, 2008-10-20 13:04.

   I liked your message, "History of Halloween" because it is very interesting. I never really knew about the history of Halloween, but now I do from your message. There are many new things that I learned about Halloween and there are much more also that I want to learn as well. Halloween is my favorite holiday because I get to be in a costume and go out and collect candy. I love Halloween and also the candy!!

   One sentence that you wrote that stands out for me is:"Halloween started a few thousand years ago. It starrted in Ireland with the ancient Celts." I think that this is interesting because I never knew that Halloween started a few thousand years ago, I always thought Halloween started about only a hundred years ago. I never knew that Halloween started a really long time ago and I wonder what they did during the holiday of Halloween. Also I never knew that Halloween started in Ireland I always thought it started somewhere else and I always thought Halloween was created by God.

   Another sentence that I enjoyed was: " During the festival the Celts believed that their ancestors could come back visit with the living relatives.The Celt would leave food for their relatives, and offer them a place to stay. " This stood out for me because I was wondering why would they believe that their ancestors could come back and visit their living relatives if they are already dead. How can a non- living thing come back to life? Also as well how can they leave the food to their relatives if they can't eat it if they are dead. It would be freaky to see the food being gone the next morning and it would be like the ghost came from the dead and ate the food as well. It really scares me.

    Your story reminds me of something to happened to me. One time I remembered when I was in Malaysia and my grandma did the same thing as the Celts did. My grandma left food for the dead people and it was suppose to be some holiday thing that she does. I didn't really understand why she was doing it, but yeah I just watched. Later on I asked and she said that it is to give thanks to the dead people for what they did and stuff. Then finally I understood why she did it. It is to give thanks to the people that are dead and to appreciate what they did. I was not scared anymore after I knew what it was really for.

   Thanks for writing. I look foward to seeing what you write next, because what you wrote was really something I never knew before. I always thought Halloween started 100 years ago but it actually started 1000 years ago. Also Halloween is my favorite holiday so I would like to see what you know more about Halloween as well. I also want to see what other holidays you know about and the history of that holiday and how it became to be. I really enjoyed your writing.