Halloween is an annual holiday. On this day, people will flock to the streets, wearing strange and scary costumes. Although this holiday is very popular, does your child know which country Halloween originated from ? Let Mykingdom help your child answer this question as well as share more information about ancient customs in masquerade festivals!
In which country did Halloween originate?
What is Halloween?
Which country does Halloween originate from is always a question that makes children wonder. The origin of Halloween is from the ancient Celtic festival Samhain (pronounced /sɛlt/), when people lit fires and wore strange costumes to ward off evil.
The Celtic festival is the day that marks the end of summer and the beginning of the harvest season. The Celts believed that this time was very dark, cold and associated with human death. That's why on New Year's Eve, the boundary between the world of the living and the dead becomes more fragile.
In which country did Halloween originate? From the Celtic festival
That's why on the night of October 31, the Celts celebrated Samhain. People will extinguish the fire in the fireplace to prevent ghosts from entering the house. And to avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people will wear masks when leaving their homes at night so that the ghosts will mistake them for fellow spirits.
The Celts wore masks when leaving their homes after dark so that ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor saints. Soon, All Saints Day incorporated some of the features of Samhain and became Halloween. Over time, Halloween has evolved into a day of activities such as Trick-or-treating, carving Halloween pumpkin lights, festive gatherings, dressing up, and eating.
Pumpkin lights have also become one of the characteristics of the Halloween festival
When is Halloween 2023?
Halloween is a holiday celebrated annually on October 31, and Halloween 2023 will take place on Tuesday, October 31.
Activities in ancient devil festivals
The Celts believed that otherworldly spirits, in addition to causing trouble and destroying crops, their presence would make it easier for priests to make predictions about the future. For a people completely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were faith, comfort during the long, dark winter nights.
When participating in this festival, Druids (priests of the high-ranking class in Celtic culture) lit giant sacred fires, where people gathered to burn crops and animals to sacrifice to the gods. Celtic god. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, often including animal heads and skins, and listened to oracles.
The sacred fire that was lit would protect the Celts from evil spirits
Halloween comes to America
Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief system there. Halloween was much more popular in Maryland and the southern colonies.
As the beliefs and customs of diverse European and American Indian ethnic groups blended together, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “joy parties,” which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors will share stories about the deceased, dance and sing together.
Halloween became a celebration of revelry to celebrate the harvest
Colonial Halloween festivals also included the telling of spooky stories and all sorts of mischief. By the mid-19th century, annual fall festivals were common but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the 19th century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing the Great Famine (Ireland), helped popularize the celebration of Halloween nationwide.
History of Trick-or-Treat
Influenced by European culture, Americans began holding carnivals and going door to door asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became the trick-or-treating tradition of today. now.
“Trick-or-treat” has become an activity where children go to people's homes to ask for candy
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to make Halloween a holiday more about neighborhood and community encounters than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became extremely popular.
Adults were encouraged by the press and community leaders to eliminate all “scary” or “horror” elements from Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the early twentieth century.
Thanks to the removal of scary elements, Halloween has become more joyful
Halloween ghost festival and little-known rituals
Many outdated Halloween rituals focus on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In 18th-century Ireland, a cook might bury a ring in his mashed potatoes on Halloween night in the hope that true love would find the diner who found it.
Can mashed potatoes that hide a ring help a person find a future spouse?
In Scotland, fortune tellers advised a young woman to name a hazelnut after each suitor and then throw the nut into the fireplace. Legend has it that the nut that burns to ashes rather than explodes symbolizes the girl's future husband. On the contrary, it symbolizes a love that does not last long
Another story says that if a young woman eats or uses a drink made from walnuts, hazelnuts, and nutmeg before going to bed on Halloween night, she will dream of her future husband.
Legend has it that drinking a drink made from walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg will dream of your future husband.
And there are many other seemingly strange rituals that we still hear about by word of mouth. The Celts believed that whether they were asking for advice about love or trying to avoid bad luck, each of these things relied on the good will of the “spirits” present.
So Mykingdom has answered the question of which country Halloween originated from . The meaning of Halloween today is completely different, no longer too scary or spooky and just like before. Halloween is a holiday for people to enjoy knocking on neighbors' doors to ask for candy, going out, gathering and dressing up.
