Did you know HALLOWEEN means “hallowed evening” or “holy evening”? It comes from a Scottish term for All Hallows Eve (The evening before All Hallows Day)? Hallow is Old English for Holy as in hallowed be Thy name. Halloween is actually like Christmas Eve. The night before a Christian holy day. It is the Eve of All Saints Day or All Hallows Eve or Halloween. Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast… it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, which comes from the Old Irish for summers end.[19] Samhain celebrated the end of the harvest, but also commemorated, and showed respect for, the dead. The nights would be drawing in at the time of year, so it was considered a time that the spirits of the dead were able to cross over into the living world. To honour the dead offerings from the harvest were left out - failing to do so could cause them to be displeased. Trick or treating has come from this tradition of leaving out offerings in honour of departed ancestors (treats), and to ward off the displeasure it was thought that they might show if they were forgotten (tricks). The festival has NOTHING to do with celebrating evil - it was all about HONOURING dead ancestors. Bibliography: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 10:59:46 +0000
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