Autor: Jimena González Sanz.
Welcome back to our English section. This time we are going to approach to one of the most well know festivities from the English speaking countries that is: Halloween. This annual holiday is celebrated each year on October 31 (in 2019 occurs on Thursday, October 31).
Its origins date from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, 2000 years ago, when they celebrated the end of summer and the beginning of the dark, cold winter ( a period often associated with human death ).So the night of October 31 it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. The following day November 1 was their New Year
The Romans invaded the UK and they combined their festivities with the existing ones from the Celts. The Romans commemorated the passing of the dead in Feralia (a day in late October) and they also celebrated the day of Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees, whose symbol is the apple, this could explain the tradition of bobbing for apples typical on Halloween.
The influence of Christianity spread and it was first designated a day in May in honor of all martyrs. Later Pope Gregory III r expanded the festival to include all saints too and moved the observance from May 13 to November 1. All Saints day incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve, and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating sweet treats.
In the USA, people began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Nowadays more than a quarter of candies sold in a year are for the celebration of Halloween. Also in USA the success of scary Halloween movies have a long history. Classic Halloween movies include for example, the saga Halloween ,with its spooky soundtrack, directed by John Carpenter. More family-friendly Halloween movies are “Beetlejuice” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown”
Halloween is a holiday packed with mystery and superstition. It began with Celts and it has spread all over the world. We can remember our deceased friends and relatives while we dress up in scary customs and go trick or treating or enjoy a terrifying movie.
If you want to know more about Halloween you can click on the following links . Hope you have enjoyed reading us today! See you all next time!
