Halloween: A Spooky Festival

musing #11

Hey readers!

Thank you for reading all of my posts till now! I hope you enjoyed them.

Halloween is coming!!!!(YAY!)

People around the world celebrate the holiday in many different ways. It is considered a holiday for dress-up and fun, especially for children. The Halloween tradition includes:- people donning costumes, serving each other “trick-or-treat”, carving jack-o-lanterns, and generally engaging in festive gatherings to ward off all evil.

But where did all of these strange practises originate? Many of these customs, it turns out, date back centuries. The holiday has evolved over time, from an ancient custom to the flashy fright-fest we know and love today. Let’s now take a look at the stories behind these customs.

ORIGIN:-

Halloween can be traced back to the Celtic festival of Samhain (around 2000 years ago). It's a Druid tradition that takes place at the end of summer, when sacrifices are made to the gods. Adherents believed that Samhain, the god of death, dispersed evil spirits throughout the world during this time to attack humans. As the dark winter and the waning of the sun set in, these evil spirits began to play nefarious tricks.

To avoid the attack, humans would disguise themselves as evil spirits as well. Halloween is inspired by the night before, which was known as All Hallows' Eve. 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. Wiccans (witchcraft adherents) believe that on October 31st, the veil between physical and spiritual realities is the thinnest and least guarded. As a result, this is the best time for those with necromantic abilities to communicate with the dead. This is what makes this festival scary and spooky.

Trick-or-treating, wherein children dress up in costumes and seek treats from neighbours, became popular in the United States in the early 20th century as Scottish and Irish communities resurrected the Old World tradition of "guising," where a person dressed in costume would tell jokes, recite a poetry, or perform any other trick in return for a piece of fruit and other such treats. Now, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats.Trick-or-treating for candy is now one of the most popular Halloween activities.

SUPERSTITIONS:-

This festival is also full of superstitious beliefs like:-

1. Avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring bad luck. This belief dates back to the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by transforming into black cats.

2. Try not to walk under ladders. This superstition may have originated with the ancient Egyptians, who held triangles to be sacred.

3. Avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.

   

While these are better to be avoided, some people still believe in them.

This was a little insight of the second most popular festival in the United States after Christmas. Make sure you do enjoy while pranking others, watching horror movies(I LOVE THEM!), trick-or-treating, carving on pumpkins and of course, dressing up!

Thank you! I hope you liked it.