Holidays, How they mostly miss their point · 5:58pm Oct 21st, 2017
I'm sure you've got some ideas about what I'm going to say with a title like that, so I'll keep it short and feel free to provide your own input. As you know, Halloween is approaching and will be here very soon. What many of you might not be aware of is the immense cultural history. Halloween gets its name from All Hallows Eve, which was the Christian appropriation of the Celtic holiday of Samhain which was their New Year's celebration. Many of practices we perform today a descended from the very practices of that holiday. The tradition of Costumes goes back to the practices of dressing up as Faieries and Goblins and dancing about to distract from the feasts prepared for the dead while the tradition of Scary Masks on Halloween goes back to tradition of the original holiday of wearing scary masks to frighten away malicious spirits. It was believed by the Celts that at the point where one year ends and another begins that the boundaries between the realms of the living and dead are at their weakest and thus allow the souls of the dead to return to the mortal realm for a single night.
But where do Jacko'lanterns and giving out candy come from? Some of you are probably asking, I'm getting there. The Jacko'lantern actually is an old Irish tradition where the would get giant beets and carve them into lantern during this time of the year. It even has its own story, Jack of the Lantern. You can probably find a few variations of the story, or it could even exist as a fan work for a series somewhere (I wouldn't be surprised if the tale of Jack of the Lantern has turned into an MLP fanfiction this point), if you do a little digging. For time reasons I won't get into it, but if you're interested in the story ask me and I'll PM you a summary of the version I first found. But when the practice crossed over to England and mainland Europe beets were exchanged for gourds because of their commercial availability at the time, which has since morphed into the carving of pumpkins. The giving of candy has a bit more of a straightforward history to it, it's just a transition from the old practice of leaving out a feast for the dead and leaving treats for the fey and goblins by the door every night to ensure they didn't mess with you or your home.
Quite a few of you probably were under the impression that the holiday was invented by candy companies and/or costume companies. Sorry to burst that little bubble, but most holidays have much longer reaching roots than that.
The real meaning of the holiday has since been lost, through all my research I have yet to find what the original meaning of Samhain is. And the sad truth is that it's not the only holiday missing its original message. Valentine's Day was named after the saint trying to stop the practice we pretty much do on that day, many Christian families will exposit how the original meaning of Christmas is a celebration family, and Dias Del Muertos (the Days of the Dead) has its first day marked as All Souls day on the calendar (the day after Halloween) and is only really celebrated by those who are of Mexican descent, and is often mistranslated merely the Day of the Dead despite being a four day celebration.
So, what has gone wrong? Short answer, Consumerism with little restriction placed upon it. Christmas stuff has been creeping its ways passed Halloween stuff for the past decade now, at least on the radio and in the stores. I don't like that, at all. I believe that the maximum number days the radio and stores should begin prepping for any given holiday is 40 days, that ways you don't have massive invasions of holidays. I don't mind Christmas invading Thanksgiving because Thanksgiving is basically an opening show for Christmas.
American Thanksgiving is a holiday with some of the most shallow roots I've managed to find, having its official start during the Lincoln administration, during which time it was on the president announce when Thanksgiving would be and it wasn't until a few administrations later someone decided to cut out the middleman have it officially marked on the calendar and thus not put it on the president to announce when the holiday will be.
Fun fact the feast most attribute to Thanksgiving in the US is at Its core a European harvest festival.
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Yup, also what were told in grade school was the "First Thanksgiving" was a one time thing, which the Pilgrims weren't even invited to. Someone found a record, the only one I might add, of the Pilgrims and natives of the area having a big feast that makes an obscure reference to "fowl" being eaten at the event, and never says what kind, that prompted politician and bureaucrats to invent a story about "the first Thanksgiving" as a way of making kids believe that the event is ingrained in our culture, never minding the fact that the event in question was never repeated in following years.
April Fools' Day is derived from England's All Fools' Day, which was a day in which the entire societal structure of the nation was turned on its side for the day and an event known as the the Fools' Parade could not not have its entry barred by any nobles. Some versions of Robin Hood, novel and cinematic most notably, actually have Robin initiating a plan that takes advantage of the practices of holiday.