Informative Essay On Halloween
Halloween is the second most celebrated holiday in America, Christmas being the first. We as a country spend over 2.5 billion dollars annually on costumes, decorations and candy. Around the world, Halloween has evolved into a trick-or-treating tradition celebrated by many.
Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival, Samhain. The Celtic people lived about 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, Northern France, and the United Kingdom. According to the Irish English Dictionary, Samhain was a celebration of the dead. The Celts celebrated this day from sundown on October 31st through November 1st, which marked the beginning of a new year on the Celtic calendar. To the Celtic people, Samhain was the most significant holiday out of the whole year. This was because on October 31st they believed dead was able to roam the earth. The spirits were thought to be evil and cause trouble, like damaging crops. To appease the evil spirits, the Celts would build sacred bonfires, where they gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices. After the Romans took over Celtic land, Pope Gregory III attempted to turn Samhain into a more church-sanctioned holiday. So, he designated November 1st All Saints Day and incorporated some …show more content…
Back then, the term “trick-or-treating” was called “guising”. Children and sometimes even poor adults would go around dressed in costumes and accept offerings from various households. Sometimes they would sing songs, recite a poem, tell a joke, or do some sort of “trick” to get a treat. Trick-or-Treating was brought into America by the Scottish and Irish immigrants but didn’t become popular until 1927. The earliest known reference to trick-or-treating was printed in the edition of Blackie, Alberta Canada Herald. Trick-or-Treating was put on hold when the war broke out because of sugar rationing, but after the war was over trick-or-treating was more popular than
Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival, Samhain. The Celtic people lived about 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, Northern France, and the United Kingdom. According to the Irish English Dictionary, Samhain was a celebration of the dead. The Celts celebrated this day from sundown on October 31st through November 1st, which marked the beginning of a new year on the Celtic calendar. To the Celtic people, Samhain was the most significant holiday out of the whole year. This was because on October 31st they believed dead was able to roam the earth. The spirits were thought to be evil and cause trouble, like damaging crops. To appease the evil spirits, the Celts would build sacred bonfires, where they gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices. After the Romans took over Celtic land, Pope Gregory III attempted to turn Samhain into a more church-sanctioned holiday. So, he designated November 1st All Saints Day and incorporated some …show more content…
Back then, the term “trick-or-treating” was called “guising”. Children and sometimes even poor adults would go around dressed in costumes and accept offerings from various households. Sometimes they would sing songs, recite a poem, tell a joke, or do some sort of “trick” to get a treat. Trick-or-Treating was brought into America by the Scottish and Irish immigrants but didn’t become popular until 1927. The earliest known reference to trick-or-treating was printed in the edition of Blackie, Alberta Canada Herald. Trick-or-Treating was put on hold when the war broke out because of sugar rationing, but after the war was over trick-or-treating was more popular than