Halloween essays

Halloween essays Trick or treat, scream children on October 31. Trick or treat, what is does that mean? Halloween has not always been about handing out candy and playing jokes on people. In fact, Halloween has changed in numerous ways over the years. Halloween first originated from a Celtic fire festival called Samhain, or summers end, that represented the New Year beginning on November 1. The Celts believed that when a person died they went to Tirnan Og, the land of eternal youth and happiness. The Celts believed that turning points, such as the turning of one year into the next, were magical events. The Celts believed that time and space came to a halt, during Samhain, thus allowing the dead to mix with the living. With this belief, the still-living, not wanting to be possessed, put out fires in their homes. This would make their house undesirable to the spirit. The extinguishing of the hearth fires symbolized the dark half of the year. The re-kindling from the Druidic fire was symbolic of the returning life that was hoped for in the spring. (Rupert, 2004) There are many inaccurate Christian teachings about Halloween and the Celts. For instance, Christian literature teaches us that Samhain was the Celtic God of the dead that was worshipped by the Druids with dreadful bloody sacrifices at Halloween. When in fact, Samhain was not a god and is defined in McBains Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language says that Samhain means summers end. Many Christian organizations teach that Halloween originated as a satanic festival, which has yet to be backed up with evidence. There is also no evidence that the Celts ever dressed in costumes on Halloween. There were many significant changes in the middle ages that made Halloween that way it is now. When the Romans conquered Celtic lands in the first century A.D., there were drastic changes to fire festival. ...