Halloween Celebrations

Halloween Celebrations

K S VENKATARAMAN

Culture is Pervasive

Many wonderful similarities are noticeable among the festivals and celebrations of the peoples living in different parts of the world, strongly suggesting something of a common origin in the remote past.

We find that in general, observance of celebrations in a number of cases adheres to the changes in Moon. When life was more in open space and closer to Nature, Full Moon days should have kindled happiness and enthusiasm in the minds of the people. Another factor influencing festivities has been seasons and the stages of agricultural operations. The harvesting season should have made people happier; they should have thought of thanking their deities for having shown their grace in the form of good harvest; this should have given rise to celebrations.

Our forefathers had realized well that the world is a mixed phenomenon and that there has to be a time and place for evil forces also. They should have thought that instead of clashing with them always, it would be a better idea to adopt a reconciliatory approach; to appease and pacify them on certain days, so that they could live peacefully always.

Private and public ceremonies for satiating the dead and gone are in vogue in many parts of the world.

Halloween Tradition

Halloween seems to mark such an attempt of the people to ingratiate themselves into the good graces of fearsome forces around them; and to destroy the unwanted things and get a feeling of riddance. The origin of Halloween could be traced to the Celtic Samhain (pronounced as sow-in).

In the United Kingdom and Northern France, in the area now known as Ireland, about 2000 years ago, the people called the Celts lived. For them the new year began in November 1^st. This day also marked the end of summer and the harvest. From then on began the cold winter, associated with death. The Celts believed that during the night before November 1^st the dividing line between the worlds of the living, and the dead became hazy. According to them, it was the time when the ghosts of the dead returned to the Earth, usually causing trouble, and spoiling the crops. They also did supposedly a good thing; they helped the Druids (Celtic priests) to make predictions. This occasion was called the festival of Samhain.

For the people who had just then completed a challenging agricultural season and had to become ready for facing a dark and cold period, the prophecies should have been a great help.

These celebrations started with the Druids building huge, sacred bonfires in which the people burnt animals and crops to satiate their deities. The Celts wore special costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins. After the celebrations, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

Romans conquered the Celtic land by A.D. 43. They ruled it for about 400 years. During this period, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic Samhain.

One was Feralia, a day in late October when the Romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The other was a day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. Apple was the symbol of Pomona. This explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

By the beginning of the ninth century, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. Even during the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV declared November 1^st as All Saints' Day to honor the Saints and Martyrs. This was an attempt to replace the Celtic festival by a somewhat related, but Christian holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day).

The night before it, that is, the night of Samhain, came to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. The changes in the names did not however affect the practice of bonfire, special costumes, thought of the dead ones, sacrifices and so on. All these came in tact to America with the arrival of European immigrants.

As rigid Protestant belief systems characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween was extremely limited there during the colonial times. In Maryland and the southern colonies it was more prevalent. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians combined, a distinctly American version of Halloween emerged. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween had not spread throughout the country.

The second half of the nineteenth century was marked by the arrival of large groups of immigrants to America. These immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, popularized the national celebration of Halloween. Americans quickly followed the Irish and English traditions, began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors. Soon Halloween became a holiday more of community and neighborly get-togethers, rather than ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft. But the latter aspect still is widely prevalent.

Halloween parties for both children and adults became usual. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations.

In due course Halloween evolved as a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time.

Town leaders have now successfully limited vandalism and Halloween has evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.

The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.

The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as ‘going a-souling’ was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.

The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has Celtic roots. They had to face an uncertain and frightening winter. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.

Pumpkin Carving

An obvious and most popular part of modern America’s Halloween celebration is ‘Pumpkin Carving’. The beginning of arrival is marked by arrival of pumpkins in large numbers; you can see them everywhere from doorsteps to dinner tables.

       ghost

    Happy Face

    Scare-Face

 Surprised Face

The use of pumpkins has its background on an Irish myth about a man called ‘Stingy Jack’. He invited the Devil for a drink with him. Stingy Jack did not want to pay for his drink. So, he persuaded the Devil to change his form as a coin; Jack would buy drinks for them using that coin; the Devil accepted the idea and became a coin. Stingy Jack wanted to retain the coin. He put it near a silver cross in his pocket. The Devil was not able to get back his original form. Finally, Stingy Jack freed the Devil but only after the Devil agreed to two of his conditions; namely, the Devil should not bother him for one year; and then, after Jack died, the Devil should not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil. He persuaded the Devil to climb upon a tree to pick a fruit. After the Devil climbed up, he carved a sign of cross into the tree’s bark and thus the Devil could not get down. Jack made a bargain and got freedom from the Devil for ten years!

After Jack died, God did not allow such an unsavory person into heaven. The Devil was bound by his promise and did not allow him into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack made a carved-out turnip out of the coal and has been roaming the Earth. The Irish referred to the ghostly figure of Jack as ‘Jack O’Lantern’. This is how the tradition of Jack O’Lantern came into vogue.

Around the World

In Ireland and Scotland, people made Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack O'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect jack O'lanterns.

Halloween, one of the world's oldest holidays, is still celebrated today in several countries around the globe. The autumn rite is commemorated in the United Kingdom, although with a surprising and distinctive British twist. In Mexico, Latin America, and Spain, All Souls' Day, the third day of the three-day Hallowmas observance, is the most important part of the celebration for many people. In Ireland and Canada, Halloween, which was once a frightening and superstitious time of year, is celebrated much as it is here in the United States, with trick-or-treating, costume parties, and fun for all ages.

In India, especially in Tamil Nadu, using the ash gourd, known as Poosanikkaai, to get rid of evil influences is a very common practice. The ash gourd would be slightly drilled and things like a red powder known as kumkumam would be liberally put inside with some coins; and broken in public view in the midst of the path or road, providing a ghastly sight. Sometimes, camphor would be lighted on the ash gourd and carried around the house or shop before breaking, to enhance its effect! Whether evil forces are afraid of them or not, nobody knows; it is a nightmare for the pedestrians and vehicle-drivers, especially two-wheelers to ride through most of the streets and roads.

There is every reason for the ghosts and evil spirits to be particularly pleased with the people of Tamil Nadu, for Halloween is not an annual affair here; on all Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, birthdays, death-days, New Moon days, and so many other days this act of pleasing the evil forces goes on here.

If one is entering a new house or starts a new business or project, or purchases a new vehicle, breaking the ash gourd is the first step to enlist the support of evil forces! For many people of Tamil Nadu, the first source of evil influence emanates from his neighbors’ eyes; everything he has, needs protection from this.

So in addition to the formless evil spirits, they have to take care of evil sight of neighbors. This explains the unbeatable verve with which the underlying spirit of Halloween finds expression here!

Source

http://www.history.com/content/halloween