What is Halloween?
Halloween is a holiday combining many different
traditional harvest festival celebrations with customs more specific to the
occasion such as costume wearing, trick-or-treating, pranks, and decorations
based on imagery of death and the supernatural (David Emery, About.com
Guide). It is celebrated on October 31.
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| Halloween is watching the Great Pumpkin Patch! |
What does the name 'Halloween' mean?
The name Halloween
(originally spelled Hallowe'en)
is a contraction of All Hallows
Even, meaning the day before All Hallows Day (better known as All
Saints Day), a Catholic holiday commemorating Christian saints and martyrs
observed since the early Middle Ages on November 1.
How and when did Halloween originate?
Apparently, the origins of Halloween can be traced back to
ancient Ireland and Scotland around the time of Christ. On Oct. 31st, the Celts
celebrated the end of summer. This was important because it was when animal
herders would move their animals into barns and pens and prepare to ride out
the winter. This was also the time of the crop harvests. This annual change of
season and lifestyle was marked by a festival called Samhain -- pronounced
'sow-ane' and means 'end of summer.' Sow rhymes with cow.
Around the 5th century, as the Catholic Church developed and
moved into the area, instead of adding a new day to celebrate, it took over the
Samhain celebration. Nov. 1st became "All Hallows Eve" where all the
saints of the Catholic church were honored. A later custom developed where
people would go door-to-door on Nov. 2, requesting small cakes in exchange for
the promise of saying prayers for some of the dead relatives of each house.
This arose out of the religious belief that the dead were in a state of limbo
before they went to heaven or hell and that the prayers of the living could
influence the outcome.
Pumpkin History
References to pumpkins date back many centuries. The name
pumpkin originated from the Greek word for "large melon" which is
"pepon." "Pepon" was nasalized by the French into
"pompon." The English changed "pompon" to "Pumpion.
American colonists changed "pumpion" into "pumpkin." The
"pumpkin" is referred to in The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow,
Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater and Cinderella.
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| Pumpkin crafts. |
The Jack-O-Lantern (or pumpkin) apparently comes from
Irish folklore about a man named Jack who tricked the devil into climbing a
tree. Once the devil was in the tree, Jack carved a cross on the trunk,
preventing the devil from coming down. The devil then made a deal with Jack not
to allow Jack into hell after Jack died if only Jack would remove the cross
from the tree. After Jack died, he couldn't go to hell, and he couldn't go to
heaven. He was forced to wander around the earth with a single candle to light his
way. The candle was placed in a turnip to keep it burning longer. When the
Irish came to America in the 1800's, they adopted the pumpkin instead of the
turnip. Along with these traditions, they brought the idea that the black cat
was considered by some to be reincarnated spirits who had prophetic abilities.
American Family Traditions
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| Celebrating our daughter's sweet birthday! |
Each family adopts their own family tradition. As for my family
we look at this time of year as Harvest Time! We enjoy the harvest of the end
of summer. Now we enjoy the fall of apples and pumpkins! We warm up our home
with the sweet smells of applesauce, apple and pumpkin pies, candies, breads and hot
spiced apple cider! We enjoy taking the pumpkins and gourds to make crafts.
In addition, we give tribute to the saints that sacrificed their
lives so we can have a better life today!
