| Halloween, is a festival of vampires, witches, ghosts and other evils - which till recently was widely celebrated only in the U.S., is now gaining popularity in Europe. What do we know about the festival and its origin?
For thousands of years, various nations celebrate different holidays and festivals in October. Halloween is one of the oldest festivals in the world. Its history dates back to millennia, starting from the Celtic festival "Samhain", Roman's Pomona Day (Goddess of fruitful abundance) and the Christian's "All Saint's Day". Halloween strangely combines the Celtic tradition of honoring evil spirits and the Christian worship of saints.
Presently, amusing traditions still remain from the ancient pagan festival. On the night of November 1, it is customary to dress in the costumes of evil spirits and organize masquerades. Due to these amusing events, the ancient meaning of Halloween – a holiday of intriguing, mysterious and mythic significance is forgotten.
Across Europe, the night marked the transition to winter. It was believed that, during this period, the souls of the dead visit their homes to warm themselves by the fire. They roam around, collecting food and drink contributions from other family members. Souls of the dead could take many forms of appearance – and evils get into the animals. Along with these, also appear the other forces of darkness such as demons, goblins and witches. All devildom descends to the earth. To avoid falling prey to the shadows of the dead, people put-out the hearths in their homes and dressed up in as frightening as possible costumes - animal skins and heads, hoping to scare away the evil spirits.
On this night, all the barriers between our and the "other" worlds are removed and the gates between these worlds are opened. So Halloween - is also an attempt to understand the connection between our world and the other worlds. Halloween night - this is a transition, a gate of one world into another. The gateway to winter, to the cold world, where all life dies, but at the same time preparing for rebirth by getting rid of everything unnecessary as foliage from trees.
On the intervening night of October 31 - November 1, Druids gathered in oak groves on the hilltops, lit bonfires and brought sacrifices for evil spirits with an aim to propitiate them. It was believed that, if hearths are lit in the morning using the charcoal of those bonfires, then it will warm the house during the long winter and protect the home from evil spirits.
This was also the time of predictions. Legend says that, Samhain opens the gateway to the past and future on this night. This is the time, when a person can realize his place in eternity. What the Druids said was an important direction for the long winters. Usually fortunes were told on the night of November 1. Of course, girls were fond of fortune-telling. They tried to see future husbands, sitting in front of a mirror at midnight with an apple in their hands. If the candle falls, then this is believed to be the bad omen.
In the beginning of the New Era, Romans occupied the majority of the Celtic lands. During the 400 years of Roman occupation on the territories of the Celts, not only the population but also the traditions have mixed up: Two Roman festivals, namely Feralia (a type of All Soul's Day) and the festival in the honor of the goddess of fruitful abundance, Pomona, merged with Samhain. Her symbol was an apple and from here, Halloween's tradition to organize games with apples were taken.
Around the 8th century, Christianity became the dominant religion in those regions, where the Druids performed rituals. The Christian church declared November 1 as "All Saint's Day". This is a festival for those saints, who do not have their special day. Saints and martyrs were glorified on this day. The folk called "All Saints Day" as Allhallowmas (the mass of all Hallows) and the night before the day was called All Hallows Eve - "Eve of All Saint's Day". The name of the festival - Halloween is derived from here.
Since then, pagan mysticism coexists with Christian in celebrating the festival Halloween. The church declared November 2 as "All Souls Day". On this day, not saints but ordinary dead people were remembered. People, for remembering the dead, organized a festival on the lines of the Samhain festival - with big bonfires, parades and dressing up in the costumes of angels and devils. |
A yearly Halloween pet costume contest was held this week
in Florida.
The Annual Pet National Halloween Pet Costume will be held this Saturday in Navarre, Florida (starting at at 2 p.m. at Pet Nation, 1890 Andorra St.). The event typically includes more than 150 pets in categories encompassing every kind of pet, reptiles, birds, rabbits, ferrets, and exotic pets.
