Sunday, November 2, 2008

Halloween or All Hallows Eve????


After seeing everyone at school dressed up in their costumes and then watching little kids running around my neighborhood trick or treating, I wondered, what is Halloween? I mean i understand that it is a day for people to dress up in scary costumes and go trick or treating for candy, but why do we do this? I went online and read a little bit about the history of Halloween and how this somewhat absurd holiday came to be. October 31st is the last day of the Celtic calendar and it honors the dead. Halloween was called All Hallows Eve years back and has been celebrated for over 2000 years! the Celtic culture had a feast on October 31st called the feast of Samhain which honors the dead. This feast ended the past year and began a new one. Back in this time, it was believed that the dead souls would roam the streets of the village at night. Those souls that were thought to be evil were offered treats that were left out on doorsteps so they would pass and guarentee that the next seasonal harvest would be abundant. The custom of leaving the treats on doorsteps eventually turned into what we now call trick or treating! After reading more about this I realized that there were many myths and legends about the celebration of All Hallows Eve and at one point this was a very serious holiday whereas today it just seems to be one for the joy of little children.

The evolution of All Hallows Eve into what we celebrate today as Halloween reminded me of the discussions we have been having in class about the Puritans and their religion. Today, as we read about the Puritans and their beliefs in witchcraft and the way they found a person guilty for participation in the "works of the devil", we are amazed at their absurd beliefs and trials. This is very similar to our views of All Hallows Eve. We no longer believe in the existence of dead souls walking the streets at night and warding them off with gifts and treats. The views of these two common occurences in the past are thought of in such different ways today.
This makes me question what people will think of us in a few hundred years? Will they call some of the things we do absurd?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with your post. But what will people in the future think about us celebrating Columbus day? The guy was a bad navigator, he ended up halfway around the world in the wrong direction he intended to go in and up to his death believed he landed in a different country. He was greedy, he was cruel to native americans and enslaved them. Why does this guy have a national holiday. Thats almost as dumb as giving Al Gore a nobel prize for making a powerpoint.

OC said...

L'il Cab,

Interesting historical analysis here. It might be nice to think critically about the costume choices people make as well. Great job with the blog. keep these thoughtful posts coming!