[etni] Re: Halloween ideas
- From: Barry Silverberg <barisil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: julieshuster9@xxxxxxxxx, etni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 30 Oct 2010 18:32:39 +0200
Dear Halo-weiners,
I used this for a jigsaw and then played selected bits of "The nightmare
Before Christmas" and "Hocus Pocus",
two kids movies that are, conveniently on You Tube.
You can still do some of it tomorrow.
Barry
WHERE DOES ‘HALOWE’EN COME FROM?
When did it start?
What is ‘Samhain?’
Halloween goes back nearly 2000 years when it first began to be celebrated
by the Celts who had their homes in Ireland, UK and the northern parts of
France. The Celts celebrated their New Year on the first of November and the
origins of Halloween go back to this time in the Celtic festival of Samhain.
Samhain was celebrated the night before the New Year.
What did the Celts believe? What are ‘pastoral people?’ What are
‘agricultural people?’
The Celts believed that the New Year marked the end of the summer. The end
of summer was significant to the Celts because they were pastoral people as
opposed to agricultural people; and the end of summer meant a radically
different style of life in the winter months.
How was winter different from summer for the Celts? What did the Celts
believe?
Cattle were brought down from the hills and people got together in houses
for long winter nights of handicrafts and telling of stories. These dark,
winter months were associated with death by the Celts. On October 31st,
Samhain was celebrated by the Celts and they believed that this was the day
when the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. This happened because of the
blurring of the boundaries between the living world and the deceased.
(blurring of the boundaries: the wall between dead and alive was not
clear )
How did ‘trick or treat’ (childrens say this today when they collect stuff)
begin? (find 2 theories -דעות )
The 'trick or treat' probably originated in the English All Souls' Day
parades when the poor would plead for food from the wealthier people. The
wealthy families gave them pastries called 'soul cakes' and asked the poor
to pray for their relatives who were no longer living. This morphed
(=changed) into people giving candies to children who came to their house
dressed up as witches or ghosts and if someone refused to give candy
(treat), a practical joke (trick) would probably be played upon him. Another
theory is of people leaving food outside their homes so that the wandering
ghosts would not enter their homes.
Why did the Celts dress up? The Celts felt winter to be a frightening time
and chances of running short of food were always there and herein lies
another reason for celebrating Halloween by dressing up. It can be traced
back to the Celtic tradition of covering themselves in masks and costumes so
that the wandering ghosts would not recognize them if the Celts happened to
be out of their homes in search of food.
Where did the custom of carving pumpkins start?
The Celts carved faces on potatoes in Ireland but when they migrated to
America, they found pumpkins to be more plentiful and hence, the system of
carved pumpkins took shape.
How is Hallowe’en celebrated in America?
In America, Halloween is the second biggest commercial holiday and people
have made a religion of dressing up in scary costumes and decorating their
homes to make it look haunted. All the real 'eeriness' of the festival has
actually got removed to be replaced by a sense of community spirit and the
scariness is done out of fun and not actual fear.
>
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