Halloween: Written by Margaret Ikladious

Mrs. Margaret Ikladious

 Halloween: Written by Margaret Ikladious

Member of USPA Agency Press

margaretikladious@yahoo.com

Halloween or Halloween, whose name is an acronym for "Halloween."

All Hallows' Eve

It is an ancient English word called Holy Night or "All Saints' Eve," i.e., the night before All Saints' Day in the Western calendar.

The origin of the word "Hallow," which means "holy night" or "holiness," where this term appeared for the first time in Scotland in the year 1556, meaning "the night of all Hallows."

Day of all Saints".

Which falls on the thirty-first of October, is actually a holiday to celebrate autumn, and Halloween coincides with Halloween on the same day, so it is considered a day of global celebration.

 Halloween has roots in Ireland and extends to the Celtic Festival (or Gaelic Samhain Festival) in Samhain.

And it happens that the date of Halloween comes with the celebration of Christians' Day of All Saints' Day.

 The ancient Druids (pious priests in ancient Gaul, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France) adopted a lunar calendar, so the feast of their god Samhain was not fixed, but after the adoption of the Julian Roman calendar, their dinner was fixed on the night of the first of November (November), that is, on the night of All Saints' Day Catholic.

They used to hold a great feast to celebrate autumn, which begins at midnight on the thirty-first of October and extends through the first day of November.

And where they were celebrating (Pomona), the Roman goddess of fruits and crops (symbolized by the apple), at the end of summer and harvest and the beginning of winter.

And where they called it the dark season, and they considered that this darkness arises as a result of the proximity of distance between the current world and the other world. Therefore there will be an excellent opportunity to transfer the spirits of fairies to this world to help people withstand the winter season..!!!!

 It was a ritual of the autumn celebration of the Druid priests to set fire and provide food and drink to facilitate the transfer of these spirits, and people wore strange costumes and covered their faces with ashes to represent the dead.

And they believed that the great god of death (Saman) called on this night all the evil spirits that died during the year and whose punishment was to resume life in the bodies of animals.

 Of course, the mere idea of ​​this gathering was enough to frighten the naive people of that time, so they lit a huge flame to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic gods.

They closely watched these evil spirits, which stripped trees of leaves, harmed crops, and made predictions.

 That is why the use of pumpkins or pumpkins to carve faces on it and add wax to it from the inside with scattered tree leaves is an example of this ancient ritual and to increase the excitement of the celebrations.

That is why it is clear that on that night, only the followers of that religion were roaming the streets and knocking on the doors of the houses, demanding a financial return. At the same time, the Christian believers remained in their homes in preparation for celebrating the day of the saints in a manner characterized by righteousness and holiness.

This means that whoever participates in these satanic practices, knowingly or ignorantly, is similar to those pagans who used to mock Christianity and its followers. There are still people in specific isolated areas of Europe who believe this is true now!! While other academic scholars assert that Halloween originated independently and has Christian roots.

This tradition began to spread in European countries in the twelfth century AD, where church bells are ringed, and they go out to the street in black clothes and distribute cakes to celebrate the souls of Christians for the safety of their souls.

 This tradition and celebration extended to the United States of America at the end of the eighteenth century AD.

But in Europe, people viewed this occasion as an opportunity to joke, tease, tell ghost stories and frighten each other. It became an occasion devoted to myths, legends, and spirits rather than being dedicated to the celebration of autumn.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the American lands were flooded with new immigrants from the continent of Aruba. These new immigrants, especially millions of Irish fleeing the potato famine in Ireland in 1846, helped promote the celebration of Halloween nationwide. The Americans took it from the Irish and English traditions.

 Then they started getting dressed and going to their house to ask for food, sweets or money, a practice that eventually became a "trick" tradition..!!!

Young women believed that during Halloween celebrations, they could help the goddess to name their future husbands by doing tricks with spinning and eating apples or holding mirrors and fortune-tellers. .!!

By the fifties of the last century, the country's leaders had succeeded in limiting sabotage in celebrations..!!

 Halloween developed in the fifties into a holiday directed mainly to the youth category and to educate them. The church encouraged the distribution of cakes and sweets to replace the old practice of leaving food and wine to evil spirits.!!

  It is currently considered one of the celebrations filled with mystery, magic, superstition, and a global celebration that official departments in some Western countries close their doors to celebrate.!!

Halloween activities include:

• Trick-or-treaters.
• Dress-ups and masks.
• Telling stories about ghosts and witch tours at night.
• TVs and cinemas show some horror movies about the world of the dead and decorating streets and homes.  

In the United States, all sects, religions, and cultures celebrate pumpkins, skulls, manifestations of black magic, witches, and spiderwebs.

And the reason for the strange clothes everyone wears on this holiday is that evil spirits do not recognize them, as the legend says that on the night of Eid, all spirits from the underworld return to the earth and remain there until dawn. Weather prevails in the feast called “trick or treat.”

Trick-or-treat

 Young children go from house to house collecting sweets in bags or baskets they carry and asking for sweets by asking the question, “Trick or treat?

Halloween was also associated with some strange old customs, where it was held to steal gates, pieces of furniture, signs, and so on to make people believe that evil spirits stole them.

 One of the traditions of celebrating this holiday is the prohibition of eating meat in any form, as it is sufficient to eat pancakes stuffed with potatoes and apples.

Currently, this holiday is celebrated in America on the basis that the celebration is a secular celebration only to spread joy and pleasure and does not have a vision or background related to religion.

That is why toy factories, tricks, sweets, and shops are active, where the Halloween event achieves commercial activity and increases production. This tradition is especially famous in the United States of America more than in Europe itself.