It’s that spooky time of year again!

October 22, 2014 · 0 Comments

Would it surprise anyone to know where Halloween originated? According www.history.com, Halloween as we know it today began over 2000 years ago as the ancient Celtic holiday known as Samhain (pronounced so-win). The Celts picked a day and marked it as the end of the harvest season and came to believe the transition of the seasons created a bridge to the world of the dead. That is spooky!
In order to appease the dead on that day, people threw sheets over their heads so ghosts wouldn’t be able to recognize them, attempting to blend in so to speak. People even left wine and gifts in baskets on their door steps as offerings hoping spirits would leave them alone. Christians later adopted the tradition but in a twist referred to it as ‘All Souls Day’ and decided to celebrate the night before which prompted the name of Hallow’s Eve where kids were given options of accepting treats or performing a deed like singing or praying for a lost soul, and that later became known as trick-or-treating.
What began as Samhain is now the very exciting celebration of Halloween which now includes candy, costumes and of course ghosts, and everything spooky making this celebrated calendar event the estimated 6 million dollar a year event in the US and Canada that it is.
Halloween is celebrated across the world and has many different names, Japan celebrates ‘Festival of the Lanterns’, believing the souls of the dead return to walk among the living; in Cambodia they celebrate ‘Pak Ben’, and Mexicans celebrates ‘Los Dias de los Meurtos’, or the Festival of the Dead.
Happy Halloween and I guess we can be fairly certain that souls of the dead will not really be walking around with us on that evening, right? After all, we’re not in Japan, Cambodia or Mexico. That doesn’t really happen, does it? Ghosts! Hah! I’m not afraid, are you?
Happy Halloween from the Shelburne Free Press – Boo!

By Alex Sher