We Iranians do not have such a nice festival. I wish I could have the chance to watch it closely. What follows are history and facts of Halloween.
Halloween is always celebrated on 31 October.
Halloween is one of the oldest celebrations in the world, dating back over 2000 years to the time of the Celts who lived in Britain. The Celts believed that evil spirits came with the long hours of winter darkness. They believed that on that night the barriers between our world and the spirit world were at their weakest and therefore spirits were most likely to be seen on earth.
The Celts built bonfires to frighten the spirits away, and feasted and danced around the fires. The Halloween fires brought comfort to the souls in purgatory and people prayed for them.
It is also a Christian festival where people or children make house calls begging for soul cakes. It was believed that even strangers could help a soul's journey to heaven by saying prayers, so, in exchange for a cake they promised to pray for the donors' deceased relatives. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. Today, people light candles in pumpkin lanterns and then put them outside their homes to frighten away witches and ghosts.
Halloween is also know by other names: All Hallows, Eve Samhain,All Hallowtide,The Feast of the Dead,The Day of the Dead.
It is thought that the colours orange and black became Halloween colours because orange is associated with harvests (Halloween marks the end of harvest) and black is associated with death.
Black cats were originally believed to protect witches' powers from negative forces.
Ringing a bell scares evil spirits away.
1 comment:
In this way we can keep away fear from ourselves. It is very interesting to afraid the spirits
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