what is halloween what is halloween

What holiday is Halloween?

Halloween

On November 1st every year, Halloween is a traditional western festival. At the most lively moment of the night before, children will dress up as various ghosts and knock on doors, asking for candy, or trick-or-treating. Halloween comes from ancient times. In Western European countries, in the Druid beliefs, November 1st is the new year.

The ancient Celts were the earliest prehistoric peoples rising north of the Alps on the European continent. The Samhain Festival is their New Year and the most important festival of the year. The weather turns cooler from the end of October, the harvest of crops is coming to an end, and the cold winter is about to start in November. As the seasons change, life for the Celtics has changed.

The herders came back from the mountains, and the fields were no longer ploughed. People stored up their grain, started slaughtering livestock, or stayed indoors doing some handicraft to pass the time.

At the turning point of this season, when the old and the new alternate, the Celts believe that life also moves from the light (summer) to the dark (winter) side, the border between life and death becomes weak, and the undead and the devil can easily spanning between two worlds.

So on the evening of the last day of the old year (i.e. October 31st, the beginning of the day in the Celtic calendar), people light bonfires, dress up, and use fire and dance to drive away the devil until the first day of the new year (November 1st). day). At the same time, food is also prepared, and the undead of the ancestors are brought home, which is where the trick-or-treat (trick-or-treat) comes from.

Halloween Traditions:

Make trouble if you don't invite guests

The main event of Halloween (Halloween) is "Trick or Treat". Children dressed up in all kinds of scary looks, ringing the neighbor's bell from door to door, shouting: "TrickorTreat!" Chocolate or a small gift. Some homes even use sound effects and smoking machines to create a terrifying atmosphere. Most families are very happy to entertain these innocent children, so the candy that the child gets in one night is often calculated in bags, and the whole bag is carried home. In Scotland, when a child asks for candy, they say: "Theskyisblue, thegrassisgreen, maywehaveourHalloween." (The sky is blue, the ground is green, come to celebrate Halloween), and then they win candy by singing and dancing.

Jack Lantern

The jack-o-lantern is the most well-known symbol of Halloween. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, locals originally lit candles in hollowed turnips to create jack-o-lanterns, but immigrants to the United States soon adopted pumpkins instead because they were larger and easier to carve patterns on. Families have carved pumpkins with scary faces and placed them on the steps of their gates, traditionally to scare away demons or monsters.

bite apple

The most popular game on Halloween is "Bite the Apple". During the game, people let apples float in a basin filled with water, and then asked participants to bite the apples with their mouths without using their hands. Whoever bites first is the winner.

halloween

divination game

In Ireland, there is a traditional divination game in which the participants blindfolded and select one of the small dishes on the table. If the dish is filled with dirt, it means that there will be people related to the participant in the coming year. For example, if you have water, you will travel far, if you have coins, you will get rich, if you have beans, you will be poor, and so on. In 19th-century Ireland, girls would place slugs on floured dishes, and the crawling marks of the slugs would be the images of their future husbands. In North America, it is said that if an unmarried woman sits in a dark room on Halloween, she can see her future husband in the mirror. If they were to die before marriage, a skull would appear in the mirror. This custom has been very popular since the late 19th century, and related greeting cards are also sold.

various halloween food

As Halloween approaches the apple harvest season, toffee apples are a festive treat. Other specialties include: candy corn, hot apple cider, and roasted pumpkin seeds. Traditional Halloween foods are apple juice, popcorn, pumpkin pie and witch-shaped spiced gingerbread.

halloween decorations

Halloween has now launched many styles of toy costumes and costumes, such as ghost plush toys, wizard hats, pumpkins, etc., which will bring a good atmosphere to Halloween and bring children the same feeling