Saturday, November 1, 2008

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Glitter Graphics
Happy Halloween Folks! Trick or treat!!! Get your costumes ready...hehhe :) Have you ever get excited during Halloween? Me? Nay, not really. I am excited for my little one to see her wearing her costume. This will be her 3rd Halloween, and she is looking forward to go to trick or treating tonight. Yesterday, I bought myself a Halloween shirt and that's about it.
So, what does Halloween really means?

"Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (Irish pronunciation: [ˈsˠaunʲ]; from the Old Irish samain).[1] The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes[2] regarded as the "Celtic New Year." Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient Celtic pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them. "The term Halloween is shortened from All Hallows' Even (both "even" and "eve" are abbreviations of "evening," but "Halloween" gets its "n" from "even") as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day," which is now also known as All_Saints" title="All Saints">All Saints' Day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Pope Gregory III">Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.

Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is an international holiday celebrated on the evening of October 31; today it is often celebrated in the morning and afternoon as well. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o'-lanterns, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is celebrated in several countries of the Western world, most commonly in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, and at times in parts of New Zealand. In Sweden, the All Saints' official holiday takes place on the first Saturday of November."

Source: Wikipedia



2 comments :

Unknown said...

Wow!Nice post about Halloween history! I always have a movie marathon during Halloween. Of course, I've been into a lot of trick or treat when I was a gradeschooler, but I must admit that I didn't enjoy doing it that much. I remember when I was a pre-schooler before, in our Halloween party at school, our teachers used to deal a great effort in their costumes. They scared me a bit when the lights are dim (sometimes a pitch black then all you can hear is the voice of Dracula or Frankenstein, weew, scary!)

I love movies especially horror ones because it let me imagine things really apart from reality that eventually, I thought that I'm a part of the scene itself hiding from the zombie or something. It's a great piece of time, watching movies. Now, for my favorite movies;

*Hannibal franchise
*Saw franchise
*Scream
*Nightmare on Elm Street
*Nosferatu (yes, the silent movie)
*Night of the Living Dead (feels like the cameraman is shooting a real zombie, I'm tellin ya!)
*Silent Hill
*Friday the 13th
and so much more!

I'm also hoping to see the Saw 5 in theater (haven't have the time yet) as well as the House. (BTW, check out their official website for the list of cities where House will be shown.)

Apart from movie marathon, I also read books, scary ones of course. Dekker, Peretti and King are some of my favorite authors.

Happy Halloween to you Dhemz!

amiable amy said...

was so excited Dhemz, i take pictures of kids and teens who went in for trick or treatin' just hours ago, be posting their pictures later