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HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN

PROFESOR COORDONATOR: Mihescu Monica

ELEV: Buz Bogdan Gabriel
CLASA: a XII-a G

Mai 2016

HISTORY OF
HALLOWEEN

PROFESOR COORDONATOR: Mihescu Monica

ELEV: Buz Bogdan Gabriel

CLASA: a XII-a GCONTENTS

INTRODUCTION...3
ARGUMENT...4
ANCIENT ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN..5
HALLOWEEN COMES TO AMERICA...7
TODAYS HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS9
HALLOWEEN SUPERSTITIONS...10
10 SPOOKY FACTS ABOUT HALLOWEEN12
HALLOWEEN IN ROMANIA.19
CONCLUSION..20
BIBLIOGRAPHY..21

INTRODUCTION
Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death,
Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated
with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and
wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III
designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All
Saints Day, incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before
was known as All Hallows Eve and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween
evolved into a secular, community-based event characterized by child-friendly
activities such as trick-or-treating. In a number of countries around the world, as
the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people continue to usher in the
winter season with gatherings, costumes and sweet treats.

ARGUMENT

Halloween is a night of costumes, fun and candy which happens only once on
31st October every year. Halloween celebration provides people with an
opportunity to dress up in a scary manner. People have choice where to attend
celebration, go trick-or-treating or remain haunted in houses. Every age group has
a role to play in Halloween. Halloween tradition and celebration has got rich
ancient religious beliefs, stories and history.
Halloween has become one of the most celebrated retail holidays in the
American culture although the roots of the holiday are shrouded in religious beliefs
that have survived from the beginning of time. Think of Halloween and visions of
costumes, jack-o-lanterns and candy appear. But the earliest celebrations of
Halloween symbolize the eternal struggle between good and evil which is still
representative in our society today.

ANCIENT ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN

Halloweens origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain

(pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now
Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on
November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the
beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with
human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary
between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of
October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the
dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts
thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids,
or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely
dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source
of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people
gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the
celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and
skins, and attempted to tell each others 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.
By 43 A.D., the Roman Empire had conquered the majority of Celtic territory.
In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two
festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of
Samhain. The first was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans
traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to
honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the
apple and the incorporation of this celebration into Samhain probably explains the
tradition of bobbing for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

On May 13, 609 A.D., Pope Boniface IV dedicated the Pantheon in Rome in honor
of all Christian martyrs, and the Catholic feast of All Martyrs Day was established
in the Western church. Pope Gregory III (731741) later expanded the festival to
include all saints as well as all martyrs, and moved the observance from May 13 to
November 1. By the 9th century the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic
lands, where it gradually blended with and supplanted the older Celtic rites. In
1000 A.D., the church would make November 2 All Souls Day, a day to honor the
dead. It is widely believed today that the church was attempting to replace the
Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. All Souls
Day was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing
up in costumes as saints, angels and devils. The All Saints Day celebration was
also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse
meaning All Saints Day) and the night before it, the traditional night of Samhain
in the Celtic religion, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually,
Halloween.

HALLOWEEN COMES TO AMERICA

Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England
because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more
common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of
different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a
distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations
included play parties, public events held to celebrate the harvest, where
neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each others fortunes, dance and
sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and
mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual
autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated
everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new
immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing
Irelands potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween
nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up
in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that
eventually became todays trick-or-treat tradition. Young women believed that on
Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by
doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a
holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts,
pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both
children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties
focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. Parents were
encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything frightening
or grotesque out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween
lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the
twentieth century.

By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but communitycentered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment.
Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to
plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the
1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had
evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of
young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic
centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily
accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-ortreating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an
entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also
prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with
small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow.
Today, Americans spend an estimated $6 billion annually on Halloween, making it
the countrys second largest commercial holiday.

TODAYS HALLOWEEN TRADITIONS

The American Halloween tradition of trick-or-treating probably dates back to
the early All Souls Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens
would beg for food and families would give them pastries called soul cakes in
return for their promise to pray for the familys dead relatives. The distribution of
soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice
of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as
going a-souling was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses
in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.
The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic
roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food
supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of
winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts
came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if
they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would
wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake
them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses,
people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and
prevent them from attempting to enter.

HALLOWEEN SUPERSTITIONS
Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition.
It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially
close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at
the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit
candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world. Todays
Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our
customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats,
afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages,
when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves
into cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition
may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were
sacred; it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning
ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid
breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.
But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that todays trick-or-treaters
have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future
instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do
with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that
they would somedaywith luck, by next Halloweenbe married. In 18th-century
Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on
Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland,
fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for
each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to
ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girls future
husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The
nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.) Another tale had it
that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and
nutmeg before bed on Halloween night she would dream about her future husband.
Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would
fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands initials; tried to learn about
their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front
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of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for
their husbands faces. Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween
parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry;
at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.
Of course, whether were asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven
years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the good will
of the very same spirits whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly.

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10 SPOOKY FACTS ABOUT HALLOWEEN

10. Mocking The Devil

Many Christians are disturbed by Halloween and consider it wrong to take part in
it, seeing it as a celebration of evil. This has become such a commonplace concern
that pastors find themselves asked about it yearly. In a way, the fear is perfectly
understandable. According to many Christians, the devil is the enemy. So the idea
of dressing up as him or any of his minions doesnt seem like something a good
person should take part in. Like many fears, this simply stems from ignorance of
the history of Halloween. Back in the days when Christians first co-opted
Halloween as All Hallows Eve, they believed very literally in the devil. However,
to them, one of the best ways to fight the devil was to attack his greatest weakness,
the pride that led him to become a fallen angel in the first place. To this effect, they
would depict him with red horns and a ridiculous tail to mock him, hoping it would
cause him to flee. Intent can get lost over time, so many people have an unrealistic
idea of the devil, not understanding the ridiculous caricature as the mockery that it
is.

09. Jack-O-Lantern
Irish legend has it that one day the devil himself came to take the soul of a
thieving man named Jack. But Jack managed to trick the devil, making him
promise to never take his soul. After eventually living a long life, Jack tried to
enter the Pearly Gates, but could not, for he had lived a life of evil. He then
attempted to enter Hell, but the devil kept his word, being no big fan of Jack
anyway. When Jack complained of having no way to see, the devil laughed at him
and threw him a glowing ember, which he fashioned into a lantern using a turnip in
his pocket. He became Jack Of The Lantern, doomed to aimlessly walk the Earth
with nowhere to go. While the legends may sound incredible, they were based on a
real phenomenon. Swamp gasses that interact with decaying matter will sometimes
give off a strange light that seems to vanish when you get closer. Before we had a
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scientific explanation, people believed these were trapped souls who could enter
neither heaven nor hell and would lead you astray. Some legends say the Irish
would use turnips or beets to create jack-olanternsfor multiple purposes. The lanterns
were sometimes used as a means of honoring
those souls trapped in purgatory, but their
mocking faces were also used to scare away
evil spirits.

08. Realistic Decorations

Last year, a couple days after Halloween, a mail carrier was making his rounds
when he saw what looked like a fairly realistic dead body on a porch. Given the
time of year, he decided that it was simply been a Halloween decoration and went
on his way without reporting it.
He was horrified when he later
discovered it was actually the
body of a man that had collapsed
just hours prior; the family was
distraught and felt the mailman
should have done something.
While we can sympathize with
their grief, it is not the first time
something like this has
happened. Several years ago in a small suburban neighborhood, the neighbors
noticed an extremely realistic corpse hanging from a tree. Many people drove right
by it, thinking it was just a Halloween decoration. The neighbors were shocked
when the police investigated and found it to be the body of a woman who had just
committed suicide. More recently, in an apartment complex in Los Angeles, the
tenants ignored a very realistic dummy that looked like it had been shot in the eye.
What the neighbors believed was a Halloween decoration turned out to be a corpse
that was allowed to decompose for almost a week. The police ruled it a suicide.

07. Halloween Costumes

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Halloween is the day we can be almost anything we desire, from a giant

hamburger to a hockey-masked lunatic, and many workplaces or schools take part
in the fun. But one thing most people dont think about is where this grand
tradition comes from. During the Celtic festival of Samhain, the dead were said to
walk the Earth, so the Celts would
wear costumes as a means of either
blending in, or at least not being
recognized by evil spirits.
Sometimes the costumes were used
for more proactive purposes.
Villagers believed the dead would
congregate around their feasts, so
masked men would try to gain the
attention of the spirits in an attempt
to lead them away from the village.

06. Tainted Candy

One of the most common legends of Halloween is the oft-repeated warning that
there might be poison or razor-blades lurking in your little ones treats, presumably
put there by some sadistic nutjob. Some people take it a step further and blame it
on witches or cults, writing tracts full of lies about the origins of Halloween to
malign Wiccans. Of the most enduring and widespread poisoning legends, one tells
the story of a young boy named Timothy OBrien. The boy had been out trick-ortreating with his father and, upon arriving home, ate a pixie stick that was laced
with cyanide, leading to his death. However, in reality it turned out that OBriens
father had a life insurance policy on his young son, and he was convicted of
poisoning the child himself and using the urban legends to cover it up.
Another story tells of a five-year-old who died of a heroin overdose after eating
tainted candy. As usual the media decided to start the hype machine before all of
the facts were in. It turned out that the child had gotten into his uncles heroin stash
and the candy had never been tainted in the first place. Thats not to say caution is

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a bad thing. Hypothetically, something could be put in your bag of treats, but there
really isnt any evidence of people trying to poison random children.
However, there is a very real danger on Halloween night that parents should
definitely watch out for. According to
AAA, Halloween is the most
dangerous night of the year for
pedestrians. The combination of
children running around in costumes,
along with drunk drivers on the road,
creates a perfect storm. It is suggested
that parents accompany kids if
possible, make sure they are visible,
and coach them on road safety.

05. Trick-Or-Treat
Trick-or-treating is probably the best-known part of Halloween, and most of us
happily took part in this tradition as kids. However, the origins of trick-or-treating
are shrouded in mystery. Many cultures had similar practicesfor instance, in the
UK, children would go door to door on Guy Fawkes day and ask for a penny for
the guy. In Ireland, in the old Samhain days, it was fairly customary for orphans
and widows to beg for supplies. After all, Samhain marked the beginning of the
cold months and they would need all the help they could get.
However, the actual phrase trick-or-treat likely
has much more modern origins. Some suggest that
the phrase began in America in the early 20th
century with the arrival of Irish immigrants who
brought their mischief along with them. To combat
pranks and other mischief by poor children, people
suggested offering treats to them as a small bribe.
For this reason, in its early days, Halloween was
often known as beggars night.

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04. Day Of The Dead

Some people think of the Day of the Dead (Da de Muertos) as a Mexican version
of Halloween. With its focus on death and spooky costumes, it could easily seem
that way to an outsider, but the two holidays actually boast very different
perspectives. Halloween is very much based on the fear of death and spirits, but on
the Day of the Dead, death is embraced and even celebrated.
On this day, the spirits of the dead return to the Earth, guided by the strong aroma
of marigolds and incense to shrines set up for them by their families, who celebrate
their return. As the day comes to an end, the families may head to the cemetery to
spend the rest of the night with their loved ones before they go back to the other
world. While many of our Halloween traditions find skeletons to be scary, the Day
of the Dead uses them both to celebrate and laugh at death.

03.Superstitions
Imagine youre walking home on Halloween night, coming back from a party or
perhaps a successful night of trick-or-treating. Everything seems fine, but then you
hear the sound of someone walking behind you. You quicken your step a bit, but
they seem to match pace with yours. While you might be tempted to turn around
and look to assure yourself that everything is okay, this could be a fatal mistake.
According to superstition, there is a good chance on Halloween that you are being
shadowed by Death himself, and if you look upon him it will be your end.
But the parting of the veil between worlds on Halloween is cause for more than
the fear of spirits and fell apparitions coming to claim you, it is also considered a
very important night for divination. Many of the superstitions involving divination
also have to do with love, and some are extremely specific. One tradition suggests
holding a candle in one hand, a mirror in the other, and attempting to walk
backward down the stairs. This will supposedly allow you to see your future
spouse, although it seems more likely that youll end up seeing a doctor. (But is the
doctor single?)

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02. Haunted Houses

Many of us visit haunted houses around Halloween. Its a great experience to
have with friends, and part of the enjoyment is knowing that, despite the thrills, we
will never be in any real danger. Unfortunately, even though our rational minds tell
us this, our fight or flight response is still in working order. One woman recalled an
experience she had while volunteering at a haunted house. She had been lying in a
coffin and popping out at people, when one girl was so overwhelmed by fear she
started pummeling her until she was pulled away.
Unfortunately, there are sometimes dangers for haunted house volunteers apart
from the customers. Customers at Creepyworld in St. Louis were walking through
a bathroom scene drenched in fake blood when they saw a very realistic-looking
corpse hanging from a noosea little too realistic. As it turns out, something had
gone horribly wrong. A teenage volunteer had somehow gotten up on the bathtub
and become caught in the noose, ending up in a coma for three days. The creepiest
part of the story is that, despite surviving the accident, she has no memory of how
it happened or the days leading up to it. The only clues the police have are
footprints on the bathtub and scuff marks on the walls.

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1. Salem
Most of us can only imagine walking through a movie-style Halloween town
unless youve been to Salem, Massachusetts, the self-proclaimed Halloween
capital of the world, that is. The city is chock-full of shops that cater to witches,
with a witch museum and scores of other spooky sites. However, like any city, the
thing that truly gives it the spark of life and wonder are the people. Salem on
Halloween is an extraordinary experience, with people thronging the streets in
every sort of costume imaginable.

But Salem can be like walking through a dream on any ordinary day as well.
Many Wiccans have taken up residence in the city and some walk around wearing
traditional garb on a daily basis. The city lives and breathes the culture of
witchcraft and, as Halloween approaches, the amount of people in costume steadily
increases. Some people have even likened Salem to a 365-day Halloween party. Its
a place where dreams (or nightmares) come alive.

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HALLOWEEN IN ROMANIA

Although Halloween is not an holiday for Romanians, as many other European

Countries, Romania took as well this celebration and started to use it as a reason to
gather with friends and family. Just because Romania is well-know for its story
about Dracula, usually tourists associate travelling to Transylvania to the
celebration of Halloween in different costume parties, inspired from Dracula
scenes. Thanks as well to the fairy-tale castle Bran, Halloween is a special
occasion in places like the Gothic fairy-tale castle Bran, near Brasov in
Transylvania.
Romanians observe
the Feast of St.
Andrew, patron saint
of Romania, on 30
November. On St.
Andrew's Eve ghosts
are said to be about. A
number of customs
related to divination, in
other places connected
to Halloween, are associated with this night.However, with the popularity of
Dracula in western Europe, around Halloween the Romanian tourist industry
promotes trips to locations connected to the historical Vlad Tepes and the more
fanciful Dracula of Bram Stoker. The most successful Halloween Party in
Transylvania takes place in Sighisoara, the citadel where Vlad the Impaler was
born.
Both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Romania discourage Halloween
celebrations, advising their parishioners to focus rather on the "Day of the Dead"
on 1 November, when special religious observances are held for the souls of the
deceased.Opposition by religious and nationalist groups, including calls to ban
costumes and decorations in schools in 2015, have been met with criticism.

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CONCLUSION

Nowadays Halloween is a very controversial celebration due to numerous

religious implications. For some people and in some regions, Halloween or some
of its elements may have a non-Christian religious meaning. Some Halloween
activities could be considered anti-Christian, and would, therefore, be avoided.
Christians would want to avoid demonic associations, for example. With these
things in mind, it would be appropriate for Christians to consider carefully their
activities on this holiday.
Most Christians believe they can celebrate Halloween (in some respects) as a
purely secular evening of fun. Many other things we do for fun, we do precisely for
entertainment and for no other reason. Thats the way entertainment is. Playing
checkers or a video game, for example, has no redeeming features of a cosmic
nature except that its fun, and sometimes relaxing.
In conclusion, Halloween is a good thing especially for children. All year long,
the parents tell them dont talk to strangers, dont be rude, dont take candy from
people you dont know, be inside by dark, stay with mom and dad and dont
wander off, and a whole bunch of other rules. Then, on Halloween, we throw all
the rules out the window; we tell them to stay out at night, wander around by
themselves, knock on doors, talk to strangers, threaten them with pranks and extort
candy from them.It teaches them that they have the choice to break the rules.That
there is no virtue in being good only because youre afraid to be bad.

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Bibliography:
www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
www.listverse.com/ spooky-facts-about-halloween
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Halloween
www.hoteltranzzit.ro/blog/halloween-romania
www.halloween.com/all-about-halloween

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