The Celts: Theme Of Honor And Mischief

Halloween is the point at which you cut Jack o' Lanterns out of pumpkins, design the house with a ghoulish topic, parties, and go trap or treating way to entryway wearing ensembles. Halloween is praised by both kids and grown-ups. Kids spruce up in

Halloween has already spread worldwide, and been given many cultural interpretations of what it represents, and how it should be celebrated. However, Día de los Muertos has just recently started spreading farther outside of hispanic culture. Día de los Muertos is a holiday celebrating death and the afterlife that death brings, as well as embracing the deceased as if they are, in a way, gods. Whereas, Halloween’s

One of the holidays was All Hallows Eve or Hallowmas. It was a version of a pagan holiday “night of the witches.” It was believed that on this night ghosts and other supernatural creatures could be seen. People wore masks and costumes and lit bonfires to keep the evil spirits away. This night was also celebrated by dancing, mummery and singing.

Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put in into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back to his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for 10 years, should Jack die before then, he would not claim his soul. Ten years pass, Jack again tricked the Devil into a tree to pick him an apple before he took his soul. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until he promised Jack not to bother him and to never take his soul. Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack out into the night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth ever since.

Celebrated on October 31st, the festival of Halloween (also known as Samhain) includes dressing in costume, trick or treating, and decorating. Tracing back in history Halloween is considered to be one of America’s oldest holidays, and is still celebrated today. Halloween is believed to come from Celtic rituals. Celtics believed the cosmological myth of Saman (Lord of the Dead). Saman would call on the souls of the people that passed away that year to take them to the afterlife or underworld; the Celtic underworld identifies with the Christian Hell. In order for the spirits to believe they were on their own, the living would wear costumes and mask their identities, along with fairies, witches and demons. This functions as a cosmological myth because it provides a creation story and framework in which this universe occupies and includes many other realms of existence. Another tradition that followed was to give food to the Saman, to persuade him to be more tolerant while he judged the dead ancestors of the living, which he would chose to take to the underworld. In this essay I will further investigate what the origins of Halloween consist of and how it offers reasoning for trick-or-treating. Also I will examine how trick-or-treating, which is still continued today, is connected to ancient Celtic festivals.

2) Support (Evidence) The celebration takes place at midnight on October 31st and goes on through November 1st and November 2nd. It is designed to honor the dead souls who, it is believed, return to their earthly homes on Halloween. Many families construct an altar to the dead in their homes to honor deceased relatives and decorate it with flowers, favorite foods and drinks of the departed (Markello). Some other decor are the widely known sugar skulls which represent the celebration of life and death. They can all be made differently in colorful and creative design combinations to personalize the skulls after the person they are made for. The intent of all this is to encourage visits by the souls, so the souls will provide protection, good luck, and wisdom to their families.

The catholic, mexican holiday, Day of the Dead and the very westernized holiday Halloween may seem very alike with their traditions and themes, but in retrospect, they are very different and have very different origins. Halloween and Day of the Dead happen at the same time, end of October and beginning of November. The background of these two holidays are very spiritual and they have an interesting story of how the Halloween and day of the dead was created. In this essay, I will be talking about the how Halloween and Day of the Dead are celebrated , the origins of Day of the Dead and Halloween, and decorations and celebrations of Day of the Dead and Halloween. Both Day of the Dead and Halloween deal with spooky traditions but they are very different than the stereotypical thought that they are just weird, scary holidays but after reading some background to these two holidays, many people realize there is a lot more to Halloween and Day of the Dead.

Transition: With all holidays come celebrations, let’s talk about the festivities that helped shape Halloween today.

First is the history of Halloween all according to a 2017 article from LiveScience by Benjamin Radford. Around 2,000 years ago in the United Kingdom Ireland, and the northern part of France the people called the Celts started this holiday. They called it Samhain back then instead of Halloween. November 1st marked their new year which resulted in them celebrating on October 31st. The New Year brought wintertime which to them meant death. On the night before winter which was October 31st, they believe that the spirits of the Dead came back. They wore costumes, put on bonfires, burned crops and sacrificed animals. When the Romans

The Ancient Celts had a unique lifestyle and culture that played a significant role in ensuring the survival of their society. Their strong influential art, music and mythology shaped countries in modern Europe. The distinguishable religious ceremonies, sufficient war tactics and unique art all led to their influence of other cultures of the time period. The Romans even took influence form the Celts due to their productive lifestyle and effective culture, this is evident through the influence the Celtic calendar had on Roman lifestyle. The Celts significant influence led them to inhabit such a vast area of Europe.

Samhain morphed into Halloween during the ninth century under the direction of the Catholic Church. According to Belk: “In order to co-opt the festival of the dead; in 835 Pope Gregory IV designated November 1st, Samhain, as "All Hallows" ("All Saints") Day. “ (509). The Church encouraged individuals to wear costumes in representation of the saints, but Samhain didn’t die down. Instead, All Soul’s was introduced in 998 and added to the official literigural calendar in 1006. Since it was now permissible to recognize the importance of all of the departed, ancestor worship was retained.

Jack had realized that the demon often playful with her and tried to remove the animal Jack "devil prop" open the way for demons to escape. To reward save lives, the devil promised Jack that Jack will not catch the soul of Hell. Therefore, when Jack died from an accident, Jack Soul Heaven denied. Jack immediately go to Hell, but the Devil does not give in ... because promises before.

On the night of October 31, the eve of All Saints' Day, children who dress in costume travel door to door trick or treating in hopes for loads of sweet chocolates and candy. This holiday, coined Halloween, is some kids favorite day of the year. Growing up, I didn’t get to celebrate Halloween for long and have enough memories to count on one hand. I never got to fall in love Halloween similar to other children because it was removed from my life for a chunk of my youth. For close to five years there was no Halloween there was only my sister’s birthday.

Halloween has roots in the ancient, pre - Christian Celtic festival of Samhain that was celebrated on Halloween/ October 31. The United Kingdom and Northern France believed that the dead would return to earth on Samhain.

“In the year of 1989, there was a street named Elm, in the state of Wyoming. Few chose to live on that street, and they all knew about the haunted house, up on the hill, on the west side of town, coming off of Elm. Once, I spent the week with some friends and, Halloween came upon us, while I stayed with them.” I was telling my first-grade brother and his friends stories to scare them out of their wits. Besides, no one wants little kids tagging along with you to go trick or treating, when you could go with your friends to Haunted Houses, and not ones set up by the town hall. “We were just about to pass the house, not thinking anything of it, when we heard a moan coming from Old Man Reaper’s house.” Their eyes grew wide with fear. Mr. G.