Halloween is almost here! If you are not sure about the Halloween history and why is Halloween celebrated then don’t worry, my purpose for writing this post is this only, to educate you all about the History of Halloween and tell you why is Halloween celebrated?
Halloween stands for “All-Hallow’s Evening” meaning hallowed evening or holy evening and is celebrated worldwide on 31st October yearly. It is dedicated to remembering the dead including saints, martyrs and all departed souls. It is celebrated by hosting or attending scary parties, dressing in scary outfits, making jack-o-lanterns, visiting haunted places, playing pranks, sharing scary stories, wearing scary costumes. It also includes attending churches and lighting candles on the graves of the dead.
Halloween’s history goes back to Celtic age (500B.C.) from whom the Britains, Welsh, Scots & Irish are descendants. The Celts believed in the spirit world. They celebrated two festivals, the start of summer and the start of winter. At the end of winter, they believed that Lord of death becomes powerful and assembles all spirits to visit their home to the living. Thus people would meet near large stone circles and performed sacrifices. People believe that Stonehenge in England is one such place.
Villagers would try to please goblins and demons by offering food. If the demons are satisfied, they treat themselves. If not, they trick the person or cast an evil spell, thus comes the name trick-o-treat. People wear masks and costumes to disguise themselves as demons so that the demons don’t hurt them. .
Romans celebrated the festival of harvest during this time and thus the two festivals got mixed up after Roman era.
But today, Halloween is a fun filled festival both for the kids and the grown ups. Children would run to neighbouring houses and shout ‘trick-o-treat’ and the people would happily give them the apples, buns or candies.
So Halloween has a long history dating way back from 500B.C. and celebrated till this day with so much fun and frolic. I would love to dress up as a Halloween participant and light the lanterns made out from pumpkins. By the way, these pumpkin lanterns are called Jack-o-lanterns.
I have also written a cute halloween ebook for kids which is about a young ghost Hallwey and his first Halloween on Earth. This is a cute story which teaches kids the history of halloween. It’s a short story and available on Amazon worldwide. If you want to educate your kid about Halloween in a fun interactive way, then get this book! It’s a bestseller in Halloween short story category on Amazon.
And yes, Happy Halloween!
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