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1. The History of Halloween
We are now only several weeks from Halloween. Halloween is normally celebrated on the last day of this month of October. When you think about Halloween, you may think about candy, ghosts, costumes, trick or treat, and America. It is doubtful that you think of the Celts. The Celts lived over 2,000 years ago in what is now Ireland, the UK, and Northern France. The Celtic year ended on October 31, and the New Year started on November 1.
The Celts worried about the ghosts of the dead returning to earth. They put out their fires at home, had special sacred giant bonfires, and wore costumes. Then they lit the fires in their homes again with flame from the special sacred bonfires. This would protect them during the winter. After the Romans had conquered the Celtic lands, several Roman holidays were mixed with the Celtic holiday. One holiday celebrated the dead going to the underworld, and the other honored Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.
The holiday honoring Pomona may explain today's game of bobbing for apples. A common Halloween game today in American consists of a tub full of water with apples floating in it. People try to bite into the apples and lift them out of the tub. This, however, is rather difficult, as the apples sink into the water when you try to bite into them. It often requires following the apple into the water, getting your face and hair wet, in order to get the apple. You can only use your teeth, not your hands.
As Christianity spread, three new Christian holidays were created. These holidays, as Christian holidays often did, were on the same days as the old non-Christian holidays and did basically the same things. In this way, the Christians converted the old holidays into Christian holidays, one of which was Halloween.
2. Jack o' Lanterns
You have undoubtedly seen pumpkins carved into jack o' lanterns. This is a popular part of Halloween celebration today in America. The jack o'lanterns have been made at Halloween for centuries. There is an Irish myth about an Irish man named Stingy Jack. Stingy means cheap in English. According to the myth, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. As Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, true to his name, he fooled the Devil into buying it for him. Stingy Jack kept tricking the Devil year after year. Everything went well with Jack until he died. The legend says that God would not allow him into heaven. The Devil would not allow him into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night, giving him only a burning coal to light his way. Jack used a carved-out turnip as a lantern, putting the coal inside of it. He has been roaming the Earth ever since then. The Irish began to call this ghostly figure, wandering through the night, as Jack of the Lantern first, and then Jack O'Lantern.
In Ireland and Scotland, people made lanterns like Jack's. They carved scary faces into turnips or potatoes, placing them in windows or near doors in order to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, people used large beets instead of turnips. When immigrants from these European countries came to the United States, they brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them. They found that pumpkins, native American fruit, make perfect jack o'lanterns.
Given the size of the pumpkins and how easy they are to carve, the jack o'lanterns have changed greatly from the days when they were carved out of turnips, beets, and potatoes, becoming the fancy faces that are seen in windows across America at the end of October.
3. Trick or Treat
While Halloween varies from country to country and custom to custom, jack o'lanterns and trick or treating are the two main parts in America. The treat part of trick or treat is known much better in Japan than the treat part. Trick or treating, however, has evolved over the years until there is more treating than tricking. Tricks included moving outhouses in the olden days and waxing windows in recent days. This is putting wax on windows, which is very hard to remove.
Treating once consisted of children going from house to house, knocking on doors, and receiving candy and chocolate. As modern parents became more and more worried about the dangers of the modern world, they began to limit trick or treating and substitutes began to develop. Some malls, for example, encourage trick or treaters to go from store to store and trick or treat on Halloween.
It is not clear if Halloween actually became a dangerous holiday for children. There are many stories of these dangers, but they are almost always just stories, without any facts behind them. These stories include razor blades in apples and drugs in candy, but it is not apparent that strangers have harmed any children.
Still, even if parental worries are not based in fact, they still greatly influence the children and what they do.
In spite of all this, Halloween is still a great holiday for American children who enjoy jack o'lanterns, trick or treating, costumes, and Halloween parties. If you ever have the chance to be in America on Halloween, enjoy the experience.
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