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dracone


In additon FiM I enjoy RPGs, Manga, Graphic Novels, Anime, Scifi, and Fantasy

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Oct
3rd
2018

History of the Holiday: Halloween · 3:25pm Oct 3rd, 2018

To those aren’t aware Halloween has a much deeper history than most believe, the holiday predates the modern concept of candy by a considerable time. How deep, I’m going give a brief summary.

The holiday we call Halloween was originally the Celtic holiday of Samhain. In the most condensed explanation, Samhain was the Celtic New Year’s celebration. But it goes further than that. The Celts believed that the boundaries between the realms of the living and the dead were at their weakest a point where one year ended and another began. Among the many ways this holiday was celebrated; a grand feast for the dead, dressing up as faeries and goblins and dancing around to confuse and distract them from interrupting the feast, wearing scary masks to frighten away malicious spirits and any fey or goblins that slipped by the dancers trying to distract them, and holding events where the families of the departed interacted with the loved ones that came to the mortal realm for the night. The dominant religion for the Celts, in most of the parts they were in, during this time was Druidism.

When the Catholic church Christianized the Celts, most notably those of Ireland and Scotland, they allowed the practice to continue mostly unchanged and named it All Hallows Eve. The day after which is marked as All Souls Day is the first day of the Mexican holiday of Dias Del Muertos, we can look into the history of that some other time. The practice was slowly changed to giving out treats and small gifts to children that were well behaved in the communities that went around helping their families and communities on its trip to the modern day.

Which brings us to the modern era, the holiday we now call Halloween. With the watered down practices of old, that often have their significance forgotten or ignored. Dressing up in costumes is a tradition that goes all the way back the days of Samhain, and has nothing to do with demonic natures or the devil. Often statements about the holiday being called things like “the Devil’s holiday” are the propaganda and rhetoric of an era in Christian history where the popes at the time wanted to completely stomp out the practices of the Pagan religions that had been acquired in the time before those popes had assumed power. Many overzealous fundamentalist Christians echo these old notions in the modern era for whatever reason. The practice of giving children candy goes back to the feasts of Samhain and giving of treats during the All Hallows Eve era of the holiday. As for the expression “trick or treat” being said by all the costume goers, I have yet to find where that originated from or why it was implemented, chances are it could be from the All Hollows Eve era so parents could see what their neighbors thought of their children so they could learn why and possibly work to correct undesirable behaviors.

What was the point of all this? To show you that there’s more to celebrations than you think. Please share this around as much as possible.

Report dracone · 149 views · #Holidays #Halloween #History
Comments ( 6 )

Do you have any idea story for this year halloween?

4947554
Not yet. But maybe this little breakdown of the history of the holiday might have given you some ideas

I always thought that All Souls Day was celebrated after Hallow's Eve and Day of the dead. I guess I have been wrong for a really long time. Thanks.

4951582
No problem, it’s actually a more common mistake than most people think. There are even times people will use All Souls Day and All Hallows Eve interchangeably, it’s something that I hear more often than I would like and is a bit of a pet peeve for me.

4951582
Also, Dias Del Muertos actually translates to “Days of the Dead”, calling it Day of the Dead is an imperfect translation, Dias Del Muertos actually goes on for several days, with each day has a theme to it

4951882
My family stuck with just one of the days, but the more traditional most likely got it going but then you got the churchgoers
they cause problems and that's a different story. Almost all translations are imperfek.

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