History of Halloween
Halloween is celebrated in several countries across the globe. This word has been derived from All Hallows Eve, which occurs on November 1. The "All Hollows Day" or "All Saints Day". In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain, All Souls' Day, the third day of the three-day Hallowmas observance , is the most important part of the celebration for many people. In Ireland and Canada, Halloween, which was once a frightening and superstitious time of year, is celebrated much as it is in the United States, with trick-or-treating, costume parties, and fun for all ages.
People believed that the souls of the dead come back to earth to visit their families or friends. People began to call November 1st as a holy or "Hallowed" day. It was to be called Al Hallow's Day. Which was later shortened to what we know today as Halloween. In the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. This was called Samhain pronounced sow-en). This was the Celtic New Year. The disembodied spirits of everyone who had died throughout the year would return to seek living bodies to possess for the following year. It was their aterlife or Panati. On the night of October 31, all those living used to extinguish fires in their homes and make them cold and undesirable. They also dressed in ghoulish costumes and made noisy parades as a way to discourage and frighten away these spirits.
As time passed by people lost their faith in supernatural powers.....but despite this people still enjoyed dressing up as: hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches. This became increasingly more ceremonial.Then in 1840's Halloween traditions were brought to America by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine.
The favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates. 'Trick or treat' is yet another practice thats followed extensively on this day. As the centuries wore on, people began dressing as these dreadful creatures and performing antics in exchange for offerings of food and drink.This practice, called mumming, evolved into our present trick or treating. To this day, witches, ghosts, and skeleton figures of the dead are among the favorite disguises." Trick-or-Treating is believed to have originated with a ninth-century European custom called "souling"
Irish children used to carve out potatoes or turnips and light them for their Halloween gatherings. They commemorated Jack, a shifty Irish villain so wicked that neither God nor the Devil wanted him. Rejected by both the sacred and profane, he wandered the world endlessly looking for a place to rest, his only warmth a glittering candle in a rotten turnip.
Pumpkin seeds should be planted between the last week of May and the middle of June. They take between 90 and 120 days to grow and are picked in October when they are bright orange in color. Their seeds can be saved to grow new pumpkins the next year. Halloween has grown out of rituals of the Celts celebrating a new year, from Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans, and the Irish legend of Jack O'Lantern.
