Halloween, or All Hallows' Eve, is celebrated in many countries.
Halloween's origins stem from as far back as Celtic or Gaelic cultures, and maybe further.
Most early cultures believed that spirits were responsible for the changes that occurred in the world, such as the changing of the seasons.
The end of the harvest season and the coming of winter signaled a time of the end of life, or the growing season, and the beginning of death, or the winter season of dormancy.
The changing of the seasons were regular and powerful and certainly beyond the control of the people, so the spirits were deemed responsible.
Masks were often created and used in an attempt to fool or placate evil spirits, or ghosts of the dead, at rituals and festivals.
Bonfires and sacrifices were common.
Items that were created for these festivals became the symbols we see today.
People and practitioners who could communicate with the spirits achieved special status such as warlocks and witches.
In America, we carve pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns and put a candle inside.
How did this get started? The Celts believed the head was the receptacle holding your spirit and the source of all your knowledge.
They used the "head" of a vegetable to represent the head and carved it much like the masks mentioned earlier.
The vegetables? A turnip or a rutabaga! The name jack-o'-lantern comes from an old Irish legend about a man named Stingy Jack who trapped the devil in a tree.
The devil responded by placing a curse on Jack making him a night wanderer with a candle in the head of vegetable -- a turnip! But what about the pumpkin? Well in America, the pumpkin was widely available, larger, and easier to carve! As Christianity spread through Europe it frequently absorbed or subsumed local customs or pagan practices and combined them with Christian observances such as All Saint's Day as a way to ease the transition of the civil population into the fold.
Christian symbols such as devils were added into the mix.
So as Halloween has been celebrated through the years, it has continued to change.
We have added symbols and figures from popular culture, such as super-heroes to our collection of Halloween icons.
Now you know why we want to be ghosts, goblins, warlocks, witches, vampires, and super-heroes!
Halloween's origins stem from as far back as Celtic or Gaelic cultures, and maybe further.
Most early cultures believed that spirits were responsible for the changes that occurred in the world, such as the changing of the seasons.
The end of the harvest season and the coming of winter signaled a time of the end of life, or the growing season, and the beginning of death, or the winter season of dormancy.
The changing of the seasons were regular and powerful and certainly beyond the control of the people, so the spirits were deemed responsible.
Masks were often created and used in an attempt to fool or placate evil spirits, or ghosts of the dead, at rituals and festivals.
Bonfires and sacrifices were common.
Items that were created for these festivals became the symbols we see today.
People and practitioners who could communicate with the spirits achieved special status such as warlocks and witches.
In America, we carve pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns and put a candle inside.
How did this get started? The Celts believed the head was the receptacle holding your spirit and the source of all your knowledge.
They used the "head" of a vegetable to represent the head and carved it much like the masks mentioned earlier.
The vegetables? A turnip or a rutabaga! The name jack-o'-lantern comes from an old Irish legend about a man named Stingy Jack who trapped the devil in a tree.
The devil responded by placing a curse on Jack making him a night wanderer with a candle in the head of vegetable -- a turnip! But what about the pumpkin? Well in America, the pumpkin was widely available, larger, and easier to carve! As Christianity spread through Europe it frequently absorbed or subsumed local customs or pagan practices and combined them with Christian observances such as All Saint's Day as a way to ease the transition of the civil population into the fold.
Christian symbols such as devils were added into the mix.
So as Halloween has been celebrated through the years, it has continued to change.
We have added symbols and figures from popular culture, such as super-heroes to our collection of Halloween icons.
Now you know why we want to be ghosts, goblins, warlocks, witches, vampires, and super-heroes!