Halloween history

Trick or Treat?

What is your favorite

Halloween memory?

Halloween’s

Origin

During the Middle Ages (about 600 years

ago), the Roman Catholic Church at that time, decided to make the change-over from

pagan religion to Christianity a bit

easier, and therefore allowed the new

converts to maintain some of their pagan

feasts. It was agreed, however, that from

now on they would be celebrated as

"Christian" feats.

So instead of praying to their heathen gods, they would now pray to, and remember the deaths of saints. For this reason the church decided to

call November 1 the "Day of All Saints," and the

mass to be celebrated on that day "Alhallowmass."

In consequence of this, the evening prior to this day was named,

"All Hallowed Evening" which subsequently was abbreviated as

"Halloween." In spite of this effort to make

October 31 a "holy evening," all the old

customs continued to be practiced, and made this evening

anything BUT a holy evening!

In Mexico, they celebrate El Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the

Dead starting the evening of October 31st.

The Celtic festival of Samhain (sow-in) is

the basis for Halloween. Samhain,

All Hallowtide, the feast of the dead in Pagan and Christian

times, signalizing the close of harvest and the initiation of the

winter season.

The Celts believed the souls of the dead visited the earth every October

31st.

The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the

spirit world to intermingle with the

living.

The day itself did not grow out of evil

practices. It grew out of the rituals of the Celts celebrating a

new year, and out of Medieval prayer

rituals of Europeans.

In the 1800’s, people started to have

Halloween parties called play parties.

Part of the celebrations

included costumes, fortune telling, and

games such as bobbing for apples.

In 1846, the potato famine in Ireland caused a flood of

immigrants to America. Merging

the American celebration with the

Irish celebration allowed for

Halloween to become a national

holiday.

It was during this time in which going

door-to-door and asking for money or food and dressing up in costumes became

popular.

At the turn of the century, cities were overcrowded and

Halloween marked the time to let off steam by playing practical jokes. By the 1930’s, things

had gotten out of hand and serious damage was

being done on Halloween. Trick or

treating was promoted as an alternative to

vandalism.

OtherNames

All Hallows Eve

SamhainAll Hallowtide

The Feast of the Dead

The Legend of the Jack-O-Lantern

A man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and a trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of the cross into the tree’s trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed out turnip to keep it glowing longer.

The Irish used turnips as their

“Jack’s lanterns” originally. But when the

immigrants came to America, they found

pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips.

Halloween Traditions• Witches – wicca; druid

worship• Ghosts & Fairies – Day of the

Dead• Cats – believed to be sacred

in Druid worship• Bonfires – Bone fires• Trick or Treat – Druid Worship

Fun Facts

A Candy corn

has 3.57 calories per kernel.

Halloween accounts for 75% of the annual

candy corn production cup of candy corn has fewer calories

than a cup of raisins.

“Hasmophobia" is the fear of ghosts.

"Samhainophobia" is the morbid fear of

Halloween.

festivities, as do 67 percent of adults.

Eighty-two percent of children take part in Halloween

Should a Christian celebrate Halloween?

• Exodus 22:18; Deut. 18:10-12

• Lev. 19:26, 31; 20:27; Is. 8:19

• Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8; 22:15

• 1 Cor. 10:23-33