*****WHAT HALLOWEEN MEANS TO THE CREATOR OF THIS PAGE*****
I started this profile to keep this holiday sacred, to anyone who celebrates it (but with a particular focus on it's religious symbolism and neopagan meaning.)
Halloween (Samhain) is a holy day. It is a day for remembering those who have passed on, and deeply cherishing everyone in your life who has not. Granted, I have presented everything here in a fun manner. But make no mistakes that this holiday is the cornerstone of my faith.
Dressing up and taking your children trick-or-treating is fun, but my wish is that one day everyone will be able to regard this holiday with the respect and love it deserves. The life/death mystery is the most profound subject any soul will ever have to ponder, and Samhain is supposed to be a manifestation of this. I ask everyone reading this to pray to whatever God(s) you worship that the poisoning of candy and savage vandalization will cease.
*****A BRIEF HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN'S ORIGINS*****
Many cultures throughout history celebrated a holiday dedicated to death or the dead. This day was usually around the beginning of November, but there are a few cultures who celebrated their Halloween at other times of the year. Coming in second was the beginning or middle of May, which is why our modern memorial day is in May. Halloween was brought to the Americas in the 1840s by Irish immigrants escaping the Potatoe Famine.
The word "Halloween" as we know it today, is a corruption of "all hallows eve" and comes from the Catholic "all hollows day" which takes place on November 1.
In Celtic Ireland and Great Britain, the holiday was called Samhain (pronounced sow-en) and was the official new year. October 31 was also their end of their "summer," or warmer half of the year.
The day of the dead "el dio de los muertos" which is most popular in Mexico, takes place November 1 and 2. The day of the dead has Aztec and Mesoamerican roots and is responsible for most skull symbology associated with the holiday.
In Japan, O-bon is celebrated from July 13 through 16. In Vietnam, this holiday is called Vu Lan and corresponds closely to mother's day. Those with living mothers are exceptionally kind to them, and those with dead mothers spend much time on this day praying for the parent's soul in the afterlife.
*****A BRIEF HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN CUSTOMS*****
Unknown to most modern people, Halloween was once considered the best day of the year to perform divinations. The Celts believed that Halloween existed outside of the normal laws of time and space to allow the dead to mingle with the living. This gave diviners the insight of the otherworld.
Trick-or-treating is thought to have originated from at 9th century European tradition known as "souling." On November 2, early Christians would go door to door begging for soul cakes, which were square pieces of bread with currants baked into them. The beggars would then pray for the souls of the donaters' dead family members so their souls could move from Limbo to Heaven.
Jack-o-lanterns most likely came from the Irish tradition of carving turnips. A notoriously misbehaved man named Jack tricked the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him there by carving a cross in the tree's trunk. Jack agreed to let Satan down if he promised to never tempt him again. When he died, Heaven would not accept him because of his misdeeds, and Hell would not accept him because he'd once tricked the devil. Satan gave Jack a single ember to light his way through Limbo. He placed it inside a turnip so the wind could not blow it out. On Halloween, the Irish would carve turnips to light the way for departed souls. But in America, pumpkins were much more abundant and became the vegetable of choice for this purpose.
There are too many explanations for costume wearing to discuss here, but the most popular one is Celtic in origin. To dress like the goblins and ghosts that would be out that night was to blend in with them, and therefor be free from their mischief.
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