Your Kids Halloween Party

11
Sep

Origin of Halloween

Tags: carving a pumpkin, halloween customs, history of halloween, origin of halloween, trick or treat | Author : admin | Category : Halloween History

For our kids today Halloween is associated with trick or treating, ghosts, games and dressing up to look as scary as possible.

But what is the real Origin of Halloween?

Where did it originate, and why does it continue to capture the minds and imaginations of kids everywhere.

This is the History of Halloween in terms that you can explain to your kids…………

The name Halloween is shortened from All Hallows’ Even, which meant the eve of All Hallows Day, which is now known as All Saints Day. All Saints Day was a religious festival celebrated on 1st November each year.

Many years ago, in Ireland, this festival at the end of the harvest season celebrated the crops being gathered in, and to slaughter livestock for food during the coming winter months. These ancient people believed that on October 31st, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the living and the dead disappeared, and the dead could become dangerous for the living, by causing problems such as passing on illnesses, or damaging their crops. The costumes and masks that we wear at Halloween originates from these ancient people, who used to dress up to placate the evil spirits.

On All Hallows Eve in Ireland they would place a skeleton and a lantern on their window sill to represent the dead. These lanterns were carved from turnips.

The name Jack o Lantern also came from an ancient Irish legend of ‘Stingy Jack’ who was a greedy, hard drinking old farmer. He is said to have tricked the devil into climbing a tree, and then trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge the devil placed a curse on Jack, condeming him to forever wander the earth at night with the only light he had, which was a candle inside of a hollowed out turnip.

In America pumpkins are used as lanterns because they are more readily available, as were large turnips in Ireland many years ago. Families celebrate Halloween today by carving a pumpkin into a frightening or funny face, and palce it on their doorstep after dark.

The images that we associate with Halloween – ghosts, witches, vampires, werewolves and other scary characters – have evolved over the generations, and are all associations with death and evil, and other scary stuff, and colors used are ofen black (associated with death) and orange (pumpkins).

‘Trick or treating’ is something that our children really look forward to on Halloween. Children go from house to house in costume, asking for treats and asking the question ‘Trick or Treat?’ The word trick means a threat to perform some mischief on the owners house, if they do not give a treat.

All these Irish traditions were taken over to the USA by immigrants and so the Halloween customs and traditions continue, passed down through the generations.