About 2000 years ago in the area which today is Northern France,
England, Scotland and Ireland, lived the Celts. Their festival of Samhain
is where the traditions of Halloween originated.
November 1, the beginning of their new year marked the end of summer
and the harvest. The dark and cold winter was coming. This time of year
was associated with death.
Beliefes was that on the night before the new year(October 31) the gates,
between the world of the living and the world of the dead, opened. On
this night it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to our world.
The night of October 31 is when they celebrated Samhain, were they sacrified
crops and animals to the Celtic gods. This for the gods to protect them
against the trouble caused by the dead and prevent them from damaging their
crops.
Celts also thought that the precense of the spirits of the dead made it easier
for the celtic priests to predict the future. Since the Celts depended entirely
on the natural world these predictions were a source of comfort and direction
during the winter.
To mark the day of Samhain the priests build huge bonfires for people to
gather around to make their sacrifices. During this festival the Celts
normally wore costumes and tried to tell each other’s fortunes.
Their costumes were normally of animal heads and skins.
Before their celebration started, the Celts “extinguished the fire in their hearts”
and after it is all over they “re-lit” that fire from the sacred bonfire to protect
them during the winter.
This is how it all started and how we now have what we call Halloween!
Hege Crowton is establishing herself as an expert copywriter.
She is known for doing in-depth research before writing her articles.
Many of her articles are posted on www.EzineCrow.com
and she also does a lot of writing for www.Crowsites.com
.
Copyright 2005 HalloweenCrow.com
