Halloween
1/ Introduction:
Halloween is a holiday celebrated each year on October 31, and Halloween 2021 will occur on Sunday, October 31. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints. Soon, 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 day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.
2/ Why Do We Celebrate Halloween on October 31?
Halloween falls on October 31 because the Gaelic festival of , considered the earliest known root of Halloween, occurred on this day. It marked a pivotal time of year when seasons changed, but more importantly, observers also believed the boundary between this world and the next became especially thin at this time, enabling them to connect with the dead. This belief is shared by some other cultures; a similar idea is mentioned around the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, which also typically occurs in October and involves saying prayers for the dead. This is also where Halloween gains its "haunted" connotations.
3/ How Halloween Is Celebrated Today:
Halloween obviously remains a popular holiday in America today, but it actually almost didn`t make it across the Atlantic. The Puritans were disapproving of the holiday`s pagan roots, so they didn`t take part in the celebrations. But once Irish and Scottish immigrants began to arrive in America in greater numbers, the holiday made its way back into the zeitgeist. The very first American colonial Halloween celebrations featured large public parties to commemorate the upcoming harvest, tell ghost stories, sing, and dance.
It`s estimated that by the early 20th century, Halloween was celebrated across North America by the majority of (candy-loving, costume-wearing) people. And this year, once again, we`ll all be enjoying our favorite candy and admiring our neighbors` decorations on October 31—and the only spooky spirits we`ll be talking about are the witch and ghost costumes our friends are wearing.
4/ Some activities:
+ Trick Or Treat:
Trick Or Treat is the main activity of most children and teenagers in the US on Halloween night. "Trick" originally means: trick, naughty ghost game: "Treat" is welcoming, kind treatment, hospitality.
Children and teenagers, young people dressed up with clothes and masks of ghosts, then carried lanterns from house to house in the neighborhood, knocked on the door and said "Trick or Treat" - "Give sweets or get hurt. prank".
This sentence can be understood as simply: "If you want us to not play bad, then treat us to something".
Usually, neighbors always want to avoid "trick" meaning playing tricks, so they often treat them with candy and fruit (according to the custom with coins inside).
+ Dunking:
According to custom, the apple is a sacred fruit used to worship the gods, so many games are related to this fruit on Halloween night, the most popular is the competition to get as many apples as possible. in a bowl of water, or when peeling an apple, the longer the apple peel, the longer it will live...
Dunking, also known as apple bobbing, in which there are apples floating in a bathtub or large basin of water and participants must use their teeth to pick up an apple.
A variation of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between your teeth and trying to drop them onto an apple.
Another popular game involves hanging molasses-covered pies or syrup sacks on a tree with a string and the player having to eat without using their hands, and this is sure to make the player in the game has a face covered in syrup.
+ Divination:
Some of the traditional games played at Halloween are forms of divination. The custom of picking apples on All Saints` Night is not just a game but is actually a ritual of luck. The more apples someone gets, the more luck they will have in the coming year. Any girl who grabs an apple, she will definitely get married that year.
As in Scotland, divination to find a future spouse every Halloween is very common. First peel an apple into a long strip, then toss the peel over the shoulder. When the apple peel falls to the ground it will take the shape of the first letter of the future spouse`s name.
Unmarried women have said that if they sit in a dark room and look in the mirror on Halloween night, their future husband`s face will appear in the mirror. However, if they die before marriage, a skull will appear. That form appeared a lot on greeting cards from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
+ Decorate with lanterns:
The Lantern Festival originates from an Irish custom. According to legend, Jack was famous for his alcoholism and intelligence.He tricked the