*DO YOU KNOW THE REAL TRADITIONS TO CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN?
*WHY HALLOWEEN IS CELEBRATED?
*WHAT & WHO IS SAMHAIN-DEMON DEITY?
*ACTUAL DARK PERIOD THAT WILL HAUNT YOU FOR NEXT QUARTER YEAR IS ABOUT TO BEGIN....
*WHY 'TRICK OR TREAT' & MASKS ARE USED?
*WHAT ACTUALY IS LURKING IN THE SHADOWS WAITING FOR THE HALLOWEEN NIGHT?
Halloween is no doubt one of the most celebrated Festival in North America and some parts of Europe. It is said that, on the night of Halloween the veils between the worlds are very thin & all the worlds around us could intermingled into one another. It is being called the most dangerous night of the year. Halloween is celebrated on 31st October which marks the start of "The night of Dead". The Halloween that was accustomed to be the most dangerous night of the year is been turned around into the celebrations and parties. Children will go out wearing masks & makeups as the scary and spooky things door to door, try to scare & get treat in the return. Their is a famous term regarding that, 'Trick or Treat'.
But what really is Halloween? How does it started?
It is a celebration of what? Why it is celebrated?
Here we will answer all about the Halloween. Everything that there is to know about the most dangerous night of the year,
THE HALLOWEEN..
Halloween is adopted by the early Christian Ministries from the Celtic Pagans of Europe & Gaelic Tribes from Scotland. It is known as the Samhain, 'The celebration of the dark & cold'.
What is SAMHAIN?
Samhain is an early Celtic tradition in which the Celtic people gather together and light the bonfire after cutting of their crops. They pray to their Pagan Deity SamHain as by offering the bonfire and the remains of the crops after cultivation to spare them from the Dark period of 6 months that is about to begin by the next sundown.
Samhain is known as the god that governs the Dark period also He's the keeper of the veils and hence He raises the veils of the both worlds during this period to keep the balance.
European continent is plagued with immense cold environment. Thus, the locals have divided the year into two parts; The Warm & The Dark.
A Celtic day is ended & begins at the sunset. So, there Samhain tradition is started at the sundown on 31st October upto the Sundown of 1st November.
Usually all there crops were cut and stored by the end of the October as after that, their is snow and no crops would survive. So, they cut their crops and stored them enough for the next 6 months as they couldn't grow anything out in the fields. If somehow they failed to produce crops and stored it; Death and hunger befalls them. Hence, Introduced the 'Winter Solstice', The tradition in which the early Gaelic people slaughter the cattle's and stores their meat in order to survive the cold.
After the night of 31st October, The Celtics does not wander outside especially after the dark. They believe that, the dark period has started and the people going out might not come back as the veils between our world and the world of dead are thin. The veil is so thin that a person could actually stumble upon the doorways and fall into other world as well as the dead's into ours.
Which is actually true to some instance;
ParaTantra's explanation: All the things that are demonic and dead are attracted to the cold. Absence of life has left them cold and the cold certainly is favorable to them. During the cold period; the people avoid going out because of extreme cold. Thus, less human interaction to the world brings out the all kinds of beasts & entities of the night to roam free upon the earth. Extreme cold conditions actually covers up the daylight and hence, The dark period. During the Extreme cold, both day & night are dark. Thus, a complete domination over the 24 hours.
When, early Christians started to revolutionize the Europe. They started to adopt their traditions instead of deleting it completely from the history books. They slightly altered those traditions over the course of time.
They transformed the Samhain as the 'All Hollows Eve'. As the night of 31st October celebrated as the 'Night of The Dead'. On the 31st October, they offered their prayers to all the souls that have been trapped in the Purgatory.
The next day on the 1st November, they celebrate the 'All saints day' during which they offer their prayers to the dead Catholic Saints.
How does Trick & Treat started? Why the Spooky makeup?
During the 18th century after the Christian revolutionize The Samhain into All Hollows eve and started the tradition of offering the prayers to the trapped souls in the Purgatory; it is said that, more prayers offered will pass those souls onto the heaven. So, baggers around the Europe started to go out on the night door to door asking for the foods and in return they offer their prayers to the deceased family members. And hence, the tradition of going door to door started.
Then started the tradition of playing pranks on the Halloween night started by the little kids. So, they carve out pumpkin heads and placed candle in their to make them spooky and then go out to scare people and then it escalated upto the extent that at Chicago many people lost their lives by the hands of some stupid pranks & vandalism by the hands of kids. To hide their identity; kids started to wear masks & thus masks & makeups have started as a tradition in Halloween.
Thus, many publishers publish cartoon books for small kids that teaches them to party instead of playing pranks and parents supported the idea by promoting their playfulness with the costume and the 'Trick and Treat'.
SUPERNATURAL REALITY OF THE HALLOWEEN
It is the reality that the Halloween is of a Supernatural importance and it's true that the veils between the worlds are thin during this occasion. We have found substantial proof about the existence of 'The Samhain- The Lord of Darkness'. The Samhain is an ancient Celtic deity also known as the Lord of the darkness. The entire Samhain tradition to welcome the Darkness for 6 months is initiated as an offering to the Samhain. Samhain can only roam the earth during the Dark hours. Early druids believe that, on the night of the Samhain or Halloween, all the people who have died past years will roam the earth in order to pass on to the afterlife. During this time Samhain roams the Earth to capture these souls and take them unto his world of darkness to serve him for eternity.
Samhain couldn't see your faces if you have been wearing masks and disguises. Samhain will look for the souls as they haven't wore masks.
Basically, The Masks is wore to hide from the Samhain.
Old Norsemen does all the traditions of Samhain to protect their families from the Samhain.
OLD SAMHAIN TRADITION TO ACTUALLY WELCOME THE DARK PERIOD
Ancient Samhain
Ancient Celts marked Samhain as the most significant of the four quarterly fire festivals, taking place at the midpoint between the fall equinox and the winter solstice.
During this time of year, hearth fires in family homes were left to burn out while the harvest was gathered.
After the harvest work was complete, celebrants joined with Druid priests to light a community fire using a wheel that would cause friction and spark flames. The wheel was considered a representation of the sun and used along with prayers.
Cattle were sacrificed, and participants took a flame from the communal bonfire back to their home to relight the hearth.
Early texts present Samhain as a mandatory celebration lasting three days and three nights where the community was required to show themselves to local kings or chieftains.
Failure to participate was believed to result in punishment from the gods, usually illness or death.
Some documents mention six days of drinking alcohol to excess, typically mead or beer, along with gluttonous feasts.
"Because the Celts believed that the barrier between worlds are thin during Samhain, they prepared offerings that were left outside villages and fields for fairies & Ancestors."
It was expected that ancestors might cross over during this time as well, and Celts would dress as animals and monsters to disguise themselves from fairies. Fairies are known to kidnap humans and to take them prisoners as their slaves onto their world.
Famous Halloween Monsters known to have Existed
Some specific monsters were associated with the mythology surrounding Samhain:
A shape-shifting creature called a Pukah that receives harvest offerings from the field.
The Lady Gwyn is a headless woman dressed in white who chases night wanderers and was accompanied by a black pig.
The Dullahan sometimes appeared as impish creatures, sometimes headless men on horses who carried their heads. Riding flame-eyed horses, their appearance was a death omen to anyone who encountered them.
A group of hunters known as the Faery Host might also haunt during Samhain and kidnap people.
Similar are the Sluagh, who would come from the west to enter houses and steal souls.
Mythological Stories & Famous myths of Samhain
Popular Samhain stories told during the festival was of “The Second Battle of Mag Tuired,” which portrays the final conflict between the Celtic pantheon known as the Tuatha de Danann and evil oppressors known as the Fomor.
“The Adventures of Nera,” in which the hero Nera encounters a corpse and fairies, and enters into the Otherworld.
Mythological Celtic hero Fionn mac Cumhaill when he faced the fire-breathing underworld dweller Aillen, who would burn down the Hall of Tara every Samhain.
During the Middle Age; bonfires known as Samghnagans, which were more personal Samhain fires nearer the farms, became a tradition, purportedly to protect families from fairies and witches.
Carved turnips called Jack-o-lanterns began to appear, attached by strings to sticks and embedded with coal. Later Irish tradition switched to pumpkins.
Dumb Supper is the tradition in which food was consumed by celebrants but only after inviting ancestors to join in, giving the families a chance to interact with the spirits.
Children would play games to entertain the dead, while adults would update the dead on the past year’s news. That night, doors and windows might be left open for the dead to come in and eat cakes that had been left for them.
CONVERSION OF SAMHAIN INTO HALLOWEEN
The first attempt was by Pope Boniface in the 5th century. He moved the celebration to13th May and specified it as a day celebrating saints and martyrs.
In the 9th century, Pope Gregory moved the celebration back to the time of the fire festivals, but declared it All Saints’ Day, on 1st November. On November 2nd All Souls’ Day would follow .
Halloween
Neither new holiday did away with the pagan aspects of the celebration. October 31st became All Hallows Eve, or Halloween, and contained much of the traditional pagan practices before being adopted in 19th-century America through Irish immigrants bringing their traditions across the ocean.
Trick-or-treating is said to have been derived from ancient Irish and Scottish practices in the nights leading up to Samhain. In Ireland, mumming was the practice of putting on costumes, going door-to-door and singing songs to the dead. Cakes were given as payment.
Halloween pranks also have a tradition in Samhain, though in the ancient celebration, tricks were typically blamed on fairies.
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