[11/12] History and Customs of Halloween

[Ricky]

1. How much do you know about Halloween?

2. Tell us about Halloween story…

3. How do you think about 14^th day of every month , for instance-st. valentine day?

4. Is it holiday for us or commercial strategy of companies?

5. If you have any fairy tale to make holiday like Halloween, what is it, why?

6. talk about halloween~~

History and Customs of Halloween

Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar(독특한,고유의) custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon(악마의) worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige(자취,흔적) of some ancient pagan(이교도) ritual(종교적의식)?

The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption(타락,부패) of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic(켈트족사람) New year. 

One story says that, on that day, the disembodied(육체에서 분리된) spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding(앞서다) year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle(혼합되다) with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish(귀신 같은) costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk(폭로하다) these stories as myth. 

The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated(받아들이다,흡수하다) into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing(상하좌우로 홱홱돌리다) for apples on Halloween.

The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned(약해지다), the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins(도깨비,장난꾸러기귀신), ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing(도망하다) their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks(농담) in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging(흐뜨러트리다) fence gates.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

 The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in 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 that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.

 So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.

[칙촉남]

후우~토픽의 압박...^^; 참석합니다.

[너는내운명]

신입인데요~ 내일 참석하고 싶어요^^ 근데 토픽이 너무 어려워염~ 잘 적응할 수 있을지ㅜ.ㅜ 그래도 열심히 할게요