EQ2_Bloggers
10-07-2010, 02:01 AM
http://www.soe.com/images/community/holidays/halloween/zombieham_sm.jpg
Halloween is just around the corner, and many of us wonder: *“Why so much mystery?” “Why so much gore and creepiness?” The truth is, Halloween can be traced back to the Old Continent. So let’s find out some more about the origins of Halloween.
We know that Halloween is celebrated on October 31, the eve of All Saints Day (November 1). *This holiday has its roots in Celtic traditions, and we inherited the celebration here in America from Irish immigrants around 1846. In later years, America would be responsible for popularizing this event. The rest is history, right?
Halloween began more than 2500 years ago, or at least that is what some historians say. According to historian Nicholas Rogers who explored the origins of Halloween, “even though some Folklorists have detected Halloween origins from the Roman Feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in a festival of the dead called Parantalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuim.”
The name derived from Old Irish and roughly means “summer’s end.” Now something I found very interesting was that the ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (of both harmful or harmless origins) to pass through. Because of this belief, families would honor deceased family members who would be invited home, while those spirits that would be considered harmful would be warded off. This is believed to have begun the custom of wearing costumes and masks to ward off the harmful spirits. Apparently the purpose of wearing a disguise was to confuse the harmful spirit and make it think the person in costume was a fellow spirit. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white and wearing masks, veils or blackened faces.
Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. *Bonfires played a large part in harvest festivities. The bones of the slaughtered livestock were cast into the flames. *Sometimes there were two bonfires built side by side and farmers and their livestock would walk between as a cleansing ritual.
I must say the origins of Halloween is a very interesting subject. So, now that you know some of the history, what is your take to this wonderful but spooky celebration? Here at SOE, we like to dress up in costumes, decorate our stations and carve pumpkins. I wonder if they will allow us to light up a bonfire… I doubt that will happen, but I am sure we can find a nice area inside any of our games and celebrate Halloween!. Of course we need you to take part in our celebration… so enough talk! *Let’s log in and start planning a party.
By Benito “Shingo” Martinez
Spanish Community Relations Rep.
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Visit This Blog Page... (http://stationblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/history-of-halloween/)
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Halloween is just around the corner, and many of us wonder: *“Why so much mystery?” “Why so much gore and creepiness?” The truth is, Halloween can be traced back to the Old Continent. So let’s find out some more about the origins of Halloween.
We know that Halloween is celebrated on October 31, the eve of All Saints Day (November 1). *This holiday has its roots in Celtic traditions, and we inherited the celebration here in America from Irish immigrants around 1846. In later years, America would be responsible for popularizing this event. The rest is history, right?
Halloween began more than 2500 years ago, or at least that is what some historians say. According to historian Nicholas Rogers who explored the origins of Halloween, “even though some Folklorists have detected Halloween origins from the Roman Feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in a festival of the dead called Parantalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuim.”
The name derived from Old Irish and roughly means “summer’s end.” Now something I found very interesting was that the ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (of both harmful or harmless origins) to pass through. Because of this belief, families would honor deceased family members who would be invited home, while those spirits that would be considered harmful would be warded off. This is believed to have begun the custom of wearing costumes and masks to ward off the harmful spirits. Apparently the purpose of wearing a disguise was to confuse the harmful spirit and make it think the person in costume was a fellow spirit. In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white and wearing masks, veils or blackened faces.
Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. *Bonfires played a large part in harvest festivities. The bones of the slaughtered livestock were cast into the flames. *Sometimes there were two bonfires built side by side and farmers and their livestock would walk between as a cleansing ritual.
I must say the origins of Halloween is a very interesting subject. So, now that you know some of the history, what is your take to this wonderful but spooky celebration? Here at SOE, we like to dress up in costumes, decorate our stations and carve pumpkins. I wonder if they will allow us to light up a bonfire… I doubt that will happen, but I am sure we can find a nice area inside any of our games and celebrate Halloween!. Of course we need you to take part in our celebration… so enough talk! *Let’s log in and start planning a party.
By Benito “Shingo” Martinez
Spanish Community Relations Rep.
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Author:
Visit This Blog Page... (http://stationblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/history-of-halloween/)
Visit StationBlog (http://stationblog.wordpress.com/)