Halloween Celebration

What is Halloween?

Halloween (or Hallowe'en) is an annual holiday observed on October 31, which commonly includes activities such as trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, bonfires   apple bobbing  , visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.

History

Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an

Historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)".
The name is derived from Old Irish and means roughly "summer's end".

 

Origin of the name

The word Halloween first appeared in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variation of the complete expression All-Hallows-Even ("evening"), that is, the night before All Hallows Day. Although the phrase All Hallows is found in old English, the expression All-Hallows-Even is not known until 1556.

 

Symbols  

Artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween developed over time. For instance, the carving of jack-o'-lanterns springs from the custom of carving turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering the souls held in purgatory. The turnip has traditionally been used in Ireland and Scotland at Halloween, but immigrants to North America used the native pumpkin. Pumpkins are both readily available and much larger – making them easier to carve than turnips. The American tradition of carving pumpkins is recorded in 1837 and was originally associated with harvest time in general, and only became specifically associated with Halloween in mid-to-late 19th century.

The imagery of Halloween is derived from many sources, including national customs, works of Gothic and horror literature (such as the novels Frankenstein and Dracula), and classic horror films (such as Frankenstein and The Mummy).

One of the first works on the subject of Halloween is from Scottish poet John Mayne in 1780, who made note of pranks at Halloween; "What fearfu' pranks ensue!", as well as the supernatural associated with the night, "Bogies" (ghosts), influencing Robert Burns' Halloween Elements of the autumn season, such as pumpkins, corn husks, and scarecrows. Homes are often decorated with these types of symbols around Halloween.

Halloween imagery includes themes of death, evil, the occult or mythical monsters. Black and orange are the holiday's traditional colors.