IT'S AGAIN

THE
HALLOWEEN
HISTORY
 The origin of Halloween
Halloween's origins date
back to the ancient
Celtic festival of
Samhain (pronounced
sow-in). The Celts, who
lived 2,000 years ago in
the area that is now
Ireland, the United
Kingdom and northern
France, celebrated their
new year on November 1.
 November 1- This day
marked the end of
summer and the
harvest and the
beginning of the dark,
cold winter, a time of
year that was often
associated with human
death. Celts believed
that on the night
before the new year,
the boundary between
the worlds of the living
and the dead became
blurred.
On the night of October 31
they celebrated Samhain,
when it was believed that
the ghosts of the dead
returned to earth. In
addition to causing
trouble and damaging
crops, Celts thought that
the presence of the
otherworldly spirits made
it easier for the Druids, or
Celtic priests, to make
predictions about the
future. For a people
entirely dependent on the
volatile natural world,
these prophecies were an
important source of
comfort and direction
during the long, dark
winter.
To commemorate the
event, Druids built
huge sacred
bonfires, where the
people gathered to
burn crops and
animals as sacrifices
to the Celtic deities.
During the
celebration, the
Celts wore
costumes, typically
consisting of animal
heads and skins, and
attempted to tell
each other's
fortunes. When the
celebration was over,
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.
Nowadays this is what people do to
celebrate Halloween:
Children get dressed up in costumes
and spend the evening "trick-or-
treating" in their neighborhoods.
After trick-or-treating, most people
attend parties with neighbors and
friends. At the parties, many games
are played, including "snap-apple," a
game in which an apple on a string
is tied to a doorframe or tree and
players attempt to bite the hanging
apple. In addition to bobbing for
apples, parents often arrange
treasure hunts, with candy or
pastries as the "treasure." The Irish
also play a card game where cards
are laid face down on a table with
candy or coins underneath them.
When a child chooses a card, he
receives whatever prize is found
below it.
A traditional food eaten on
Halloween is barn brack, a
kind of fruitcake that can
be bought in stores or
baked at home. A muslin-
wrapped treat is baked
inside the cake that, it is
said, can foretell the
eater's future. If a ring is
found, it means that the
person will soon be wed; a
piece of straw means that
a prosperous year is on its
way. Children are also
known to play tricks on
their neighbors, such as
"knock-a-dolly," a prank in
which children knock on
the doors of their
neighbors, but run away
before the door is opened
Изработено од
членовите на
секцијата по
англиски јазик.
Октомври, 2019