Halloween

Halloween? Where did it come from? What does it mean? What is it? This post tells the truth behind Halloween that many don’t know.

Halloween is also know as ‘All Hallows Evening or Eve’, ‘All Hallows, ‘All Saints’ and Hallowe’en and is often celebrated the weekend before the 31st of October, the 31st being Halloween, and sometimes the 1st of November.
Halloween’s origin is uncertain. Halloween may have originated as a Roman feast of Pomona (goddess of fruit and seeds); Parentara – festival of the dead; a Celtic festival of Samhain; or an old Christian tradition of honouring saints and praying for those who have left you.
According to the Celtic festival, evil spirits and fairies haunted the homes and people on the festival occurrence.
The Celtics wore costumes at their festival to scare away evil spirits and fairies, which is probably where the tradition of dressing up for Halloween comes from.
At the Celtic festival, pumpkins were used to protect the homes of people from the evil spirits and fairies.

North America inherited the Halloween tradition from the mass immigration of the Irish and Scottish in the mid 19th century.
The current Halloween themes of death, evil, magic, sorcery and mystical monsters were probably inherited from horror books and movies.
At Halloween, many Christians take a more biblical approach, like dressing up as biblical characters, praying for others and call it ‘All Hallows Eve’.
Halloween, the festival of the dead, celebrates and encourages paganism, magic and sorcery and other death related things.
The custom of trick or treating (guising) could have originated from Ireland, when people collected food from houses for the Samhain feast, while wearing costumes; or Moray, since in the 18th century, boys went to houses to collect fuel for the Samhain bonfire; or trick or treating could have even originated from Europe in the 12th century when poor people went houses to collect soul cakes.

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