Why Was Halloween Created Tell Me

Why is halloween celebrated?

It is a pagan holiday (Samhain) that originated to celebrate the end of the Celtic New Year. It is a time when the pagans believe the veil between the dead and the living is at its thinnest. During this time, magical things happen and the dead are able to walk among us once more.

Who created Halloween or how did it originate?

The name “Halloween,” comes from “All Hallows Eve,” which came the night before “All Hallows Day,” a Catholic celebration in honor of the saints. Many years before this holiday originated, the Celtic Irish celebrated October 31 as the end of the summer as well as the ‘New Year’ and called it “Samhain” (rhyming with “cow-en”).

The Celtic people believed that on this eve the souls of those who had died during the past year would return in search of living bodies to posses. If they did not posses a living body they would have no chance at the afterlife. None of the living wanted to be possessed by these spirits, so they would put out all the lights in their homes, dress up in ghoulish costumes, and reek havoc in their neighborhood to scare the spirits away.

The Roman Catholics adopted many of the Celt’s practices to their own. As spirit possession became less popular, many began to dress up as witches, goblins, and demons in a more ceremonial way.

Halloween came to America during the 1840′s as Irish immigrants fled Ireland’s potato famine, but contrary to popular belief, this is not where trick-or-treating originated. Trick-or-treating comes from the European custom of “souling.” The day after “All Hallows Day,” Christians would walk from town to town begging for “soul cakes,” which were pieces of bread baked with currents. The more “soul cakes” that were given to the beggars, the more prayers the beggars would promise to the donors. The Roman Catholics believed that the newly dead stayed in “limbo,” and prayers could help the souls get to heaven faster.

Although there is a plethora of literature surrounding the origins of Halloween, it did not begin as a time for “evil” or “devil worshiping,” as many think. It began with the Celtic Irish and Roman Catholics who were celebrating a new year and performing rituals for prayer.

Why was halloween created?

Hallowe'en is short for All Hallows Eve/evening. Hallows means Holy or Saint. Hallowe'en means All Saints Eve - the evening and night before All Saints Day.

All Saints Day is an ancient feast of the church going back to the 8th century in Rome from where it spread around Europe. In 9th century Ireland, already Christian, the November 1st celebration replaced their existing All Saints Day in the spring.

11th century accounts of Irish myths placed a warrior feast on All Saints Day or its Eve - the Eve of November, the Irish for November being Samhain. There is no evidence of "Samhain" ever being a religious festival or of it ever spreading anywhere else. The Samhain feast may well be entirely mythical.

The Catholic feast of All Saints was later followed by All Souls Day on November 2nd when people pray for all the dead, not just Saints. This has become know as the "Day of the Dead" in many countries - Mexico, Hungary, Spain, the Philippines for example.

In countries with an anti-catholic tradition (US and UK mainly), these Catholic celebrations have been the object of attacks, even being banned. The customs around the festivals were attacked for being un-Christian, devil worship, pagan, satanic. witch craft and other such propaganda. This originally puritan idea is now the dominant one in the USA, even amongst atheists, and still common in the UK, though now it is mostly just thought of as a bit of fun.

Why was Halloween Created?

Originally it was the night before All Saints Day which is a Catholic day, started in Rome, to honor the saints. All Hallows Eve means All Saints Eve. All Souls Day was later added to pray for the souls in purgatory and that is where Halloween's connection to death comes form.

When All Hallows reached Ireland the pre-Christian holiday of Samhain got mixed with All Saints and Souls (just like pre-Christian traditions got mixed with All Saints and Souls in Mexico, which became Day of the Dead, and among some Native Americans in the U.S.) and also with native Irish beliefs and customs (which were interpreted through Christian beliefs and turned into folklore). This Irish/Scottish mix of All Saints and Samhain became Halloween.

In the 19th century Halloween was brought to the U.S. and Canada by Irish immigrants and has since been changed so much that it no longer resembles either the Catholic or the Irish version (except for the connection to death and the supernatural/spooky).

Most of the popular beliefs about Halloween's history are untrue. For instance, the right wing Christian extremist versions and the History Channel's (history.com) version of Halloween's history are all wrong. And the ideas that the Celts dressed in costumes or honored the dead at Samhain has no basis in fact either.

All Saints Day is still a public holiday in many European and South American countries. It is not a public holiday in Ireland. They celebrate oiche shamhna (Samhain Eve) or Halloween.

Why is halloween bad?

Christmas was not celebrated as Christmas, it was Winter Solstice. It is the longest night of the year, and the shortest day. It is the birthday of the Sun King, when the days begin to grow longer. This season has been associated in pagan times with Gods and heros births, Oedipus, Therseus, Hercules, Perseus, Jason, Dionysus, Appollo, Mithra, Horus, and even Arthur. They all possessed a narrative birth, death and resurection, close to that of Jesus, and to make matters worse, some pre-dated the Christian saviour. This may be why John Calvin and other leaders of the reformation hated it, why the Puritans refused to acknowlage it, and it was even made illegal in Boston. Yes, the Church and man decided to make December 25th, the day The saviour, The "Light" of the world was born, (even though there is no evidence of this), The roman catholic fathers decided this in 320 C.E. To take focus away from Pagan celebrations. Easter!! In the roman catholic church, there are two holidays that get mixed up with the vernal equinox, (which by the way, is a time when both day and night are at equal lengths, but light gains dominace over the dark of night.) The first is a fixed date of March 25th in the old liturgical calendar, it is called the Feast of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary. When Gabriel announced to her that she was pregnant, Why this date? Well figure nine months from this date and it ends up december 25!! This date was also picked by the church. The other holiday being Easter, The resurection of Jesus. The name Easter comes from the Teutonic Lunar Goddess Ostre, who symbols were the bunny, (fertility) and the egg (cosmic symbol for creation) Her holiday was held on the vernal equinox full moon. The church, does not celebrate full moons, even if they do calculate by them, so they put Easter on the next Sunday AFTER a full moon, thgis is why it moves around so much. By the way, the church was so adamant about NOT incorperating the Goddess symbols, that they further calculated that if Easter fell on a full moon, it was held the Sunday next. Are they evil? no. These are times of celibration!! So enjoy, and let the christians do the same.

Why Halloween?

The modern holiday of Halloween may have its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced /ˈsˠaunʲ/ from the Old Irish samain). The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes erroneously[2] regarded as the "Celtic New Year".[3] Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.[4][5] When the Romans occupied Celtic territory, several Roman traditions were also incorporated into the festivals. Feralia, a day celebrated in late October by the Romans for the passing of the dead as well as a festival which celebrated the Roman Goddess Pomona, the goddess of fruit were incorporated into the celebrations. The symbol of Pomona was an apple, which is a proposed origin for the tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.[6]

[edit] History of name

The term Halloween (and its alternative rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions,[3] until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.

Who invented Halloween and why?

It was originally a harvest festival, the Celtic Samhain which roughly fell on October 31st and November 1st. It's from the early Christian Church that we get Halloween. You see early on the church had to option for converting folks to Christianity. The first was to tell them the old ways no longer worked and to forget the old celebrations. Not exactly wise, especially as so many of the cultures being converted had known the old ways for generations, even longer than Christianity had exisited. The second way was to allow the old celebrations to continue, but rededicate them and tell the people that the new ways just happened to occur at the same time. The second way was far more succesful.

Hallow is another word for Saint, and November 1st became All Hallowsmas or All Hallows Day. The feast day of those Christian Saints who didn't have their own individual feast day. The evening before became All Hallows Eve or All Hallows Evening. And November 2nd became All Souls Day, the day when good Christians remembered friends and family who had passed on, especially in the past year, and to pray for those souls in Purgatory so as to help shorten their time in Purgatory and speed them on to Heaven. Today November 1st and 2nd are still All Saints Day and All Souls Day. October 31st went from All Hallows Eve to All Hallow'een and finally to Halloween.