Halloween

So Halloween is getting closer and I'm getting excited!We don't celevrate it in my country officially but from a couple of years there are parties at this day where you can be with a costume and it's really fun!But do you really know where Halloween came from and when it started?If not I will talk about it now :)
It didn't actually start in America.

Ancient Origins of Halloween

"Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter."

Halloween Comes to America

"Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
 In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors."

So today is a little different and Halloween is celebrated mostly in America and on this day you can go to a party and be somebody else (or something! lol)
We don't celebrate it here but we also have parties with costumes on this day and I will go of course beacause I just love it! :))
I will show you my costume in other post so keep following me! :) xoxo

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Здравейте момичета!Наближава един от любимите ми празници -Хелуин. Знам че тук не се празнува официално,но от няколко години в София има тематични дискотеки и събирания,където може да си с костюм и пада голяма веселба.Естествено няма да го пропусна и тази година и все още съм в търсене на интересно събитие,на което да отида.Вече съм си избрала костюм,но за него ще ви разказвам друг път.Днес искам да ви разкажа откъде  всъщност произлиза самия празник.Ако се разровим по-надълбоко в архивите ще открием,че той не е от Америка и е много по-стар отколкото си мислим.

Произход и история  

"Древните келти посрещали своята нова година Самайн в края на октомври. Те живеели със заблудата, че в нощта срещу нея починалите през изминалата година навестяват земята, в търсене на живи тела, в които да се вселят. За да се предпазят, келтите гасели огъня в огнищата и се опитвали да изглеждат колкото се може по-страшно - обличали животински кожи и глави, надявайки се да изплашат привиденията. Събирали се около огньове, запалвани от друидите жреци, устройвали гадания и принасяли в жертва животни.

 

Подобен на този е древният езически ритуал на кукерството, където присъстват същите атрибути - маски с рога и зловещо изражение, животински кожи като целта е гонене на злото. Това, разбира се, са практики противни на християнството."

A вие празнувате ли Хелуин??Ще се радвам да споделите мнението си :) хохо

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