Celebration of the day of deceased
Celebration of the day of deceased
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Modificado: 5 de febreiro de 2009, 10:12 AM Usuario: Sara Astor Molero 2BACC → SA
Celebration of the day of the deceased
Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is a holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a secular celebration, but some Christians and Pagans have expressed strong feelings about its religious overtones. Irish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America during Ireland's Great Famine of 1846.The day is often associated with the colors orange and black, and is strongly associated with symbols such as the jack-o'-lantern. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o'-lanterns, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies.
Halloween was started by the Celts, who celebrated their New Year on November 1st. A festival was held the evening before, October 31st, in honor of their Celtic lord of death, Samhaim. This marked the beginning of a season of cold, darkness, and decay; and later became associated with human death. The Celts believed their "lord of death" would allow dead souls to return to their earthly homes on this day.
Irish children used to carve out potatoes or turnips and light them for their Halloween gatherings. They commemorated Jack, a shifty Irish villain so wicked that neither God nor the Devil wanted him. Rejected by both the sacred and profane, he wandered the world endlessly looking for a place to rest, his only warmth a glittering candle in a rotten turnip.
Some games traditionally played at Halloween are forms of divination:In Puicíní,a game played in Ireland but nowadays there is another variation typical of the rural United States. It consists of a traditional Irish and Scottish form of divining one's future spouse is to carve an apple in one long strip, then toss the peel over one's shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name.
Some characteristics are :
-The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties.
-The custom of trick or treating probably has several origins. During Samhain, the Druids believed that the dead would play tricks on mankind and cause panic and destruction.An old Irish peasant practice called for going door to door to collect money, breadcake, cheese, eggs, butter, apples, etc., in preparation for the festival of St. Columb Kill.
-A traditional food eaten on Halloween is barnbrack, a kind of fruitcake that can be bought in stores or baked at home.
-The witch is a central symbol of Halloween. The name comes from the Saxon wica, meaning wise one.
-Orange and black are Halloween colors because orange is associated with the Fall harvest and black is associated with darkness and death.
