The traditions of Halloween started further back than you may think. The origin of the celebration can be traced back to the Celtics in Ireland more than 2000 year ago. Since then the traditions have grown and changed with influences from the Roman, the Catholics, and America.
The first Halloween celebrations are more than 2000 years old. The ancient Celtics would celebrate the end of summer and the beginning of winter on the first of November. They believed the day before, October 31, called Samhain, the boundaries between the living and the dead were blurred. On this day, the ghosts of the dead visit Earth. In addition to potentially damaging crops and causing mayhem, the ghosts were believed to predict the future. The Celtics would dress in costume, usually animal skins in order to welcome the ghosts.
In 43 AD., the Romans conquered most of the Celtic land. After many years of merging cultures, two Roman celebrations were combined with Samhain. The first is Feralia, the day the Romans honor their dead and the second is a day honoring Pomona, the goddess of fruits and trees. Pomona’s is symbolized by the apple, which is possibly where the tradition of bobbing for apples may have originated.
Between the years of 609 and 1000 AD., the celebration was further modified by the papal decrees commemorating All Souls Day on November 2nd and All Saints Day on November 1st. All Saints Day was also known as All-hallows, therefore making the day prior All-hallows eve or Halloween.
The traditions continued to evolve as people moved to America. First the holiday was heavily resisted by most colonists given the strict Protestant views of the colonies. But as time moves on, the holiday gained traction. There are reasons behind all of the traditions of Halloween, from the idea of saying “Trick or Treat”, to handing out candy, to avoiding walking under ladders or not allowing a black cat to cross your path. From its early beginnings of a Celtic celebration, it has morphed into the second largest commercial holiday in the United States.
What is your favorite Halloween tradition? If you are dressing up this year, what are you going as? Why? What is your favorite Halloween candy?
Every Halloween, and probably for some more, I go trick-or-treating with some friends and my parents stay at home if they don't come with us. The year I am going around in a black morph suit. I think they look really cool and fun and I want to impress little kids. My favorite candy is Twix! It's crunchy, chocolate-y, caramel-y, and delicious!
ReplyDeleteI want to be a role model so i dress up and my favorite candy is snickers. the little kids look so cute and i want them to look up to me and want to impress me. i carve pumpkins every year. SO FUN!
ReplyDeleteI dress up, carve pumpkins, and go trick or treating with some friends. I am dressing up and I am going to be SuperMan My halloween candies are kit hat, reeses, and twix.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is trick-or-treating with my friends. I also love to carve pumpkins and decorate the house. I am dressing up as an ice cream cone because I saw it and loved it and I thought that it was cute. My favorite Halloween candy are kit-kats, twix, reeses, smarties, hersheys, m&ms, and snickers.
ReplyDeleteA.K.A. Everything Chocolate :P
DeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is going trick or treating with my friends. I am dressing up this year, I am going to be this creeper person with a very creepy mask. I am going as that costume because I like scaring people. my favorite Halloween candy is probably Snickers.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween candy is Reese's Cups. YUM! My favorite tradition is going trick-or-treating with our family friends and my cousins.... or..... carving pumpkins with my dad, but we can't do that this year because he's out of town :( I'm going to be a fairy princess for Halloween this year. My reason? 'cause I feel like it.. :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is carving a pumpkin into funny faces and desighns.This year I was a taco because the costume I was going to be was not in stock. I love candy corn so much I just love the flavor.
ReplyDeleteMt favorite Halloween tradition is to go trick-or-treating. I'm dressing up as an angry bird, because I really like the game angry birds and I thought it would be fun to dress up as one. My favorite Halloween candy is Twix.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is carving pumpkins, trick or treating with friends, and eating candy. :) I also like to go to Linder Farms, but we weren’t able to go this year. This year I went trick or treating as Minnie Mouse, because I thought that it was cute, and I like the big hands that I got to wear. My favorite Halloween candy is Hershey’s chocolate.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is to scare while at home when I am giving out candy. I am going to be a U.S. Marine because my family has had a lot of Veterans and wanted to honor them. Reuses penut butter cups.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is trick-or-treating with my friends, usually in Warm Springs, and dressing up in a costume. This year for Halloween I was a nerd because I had a dance costume from a couple years ago and it was a nerd costume so I decided to wear it. My favorite Halloween candy is sour patch kids. I like that they are sour but also sweet.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite Halloween traditions is dressing up and trick-or-treating with my friends. This year for Halloween I was a Pink Lady from the movie Grease. I was a Pink Lady because I saw it in a costume magazine and I thought it looked cute, so I got it. My favorite Halloween candies are sour patch kids, Kit Kat, and jolly ranchers.
ReplyDeleteFor Halloween i dress up and go trick or treating and watching charlie brown and the spirit of Halloween. I dressed up as the invisible man this year because it is an easy costume to make and i don't need to go to the store for it. My favorite candy is reeses, Hershey milk chocolate,kit kats, and smarties,
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is making the Jack-o-lanterns. This Halloween I am dressing as this thing called a Black Widow Seductress. I chose it because it was really pretty and my imagination wasn't really working. I can't decide what my most favorite Halloween candy is, but one of the ones I really like are Almond Joys. I love coconut, milk chocolate, and almonds. :-)
ReplyDeleteI like to go trick or treating with my friends. I was a ninja this halloween. I wanted to go as something dark so I could scare my friends and other people. Plus ninjas are pretty awesome. My favorite candy is probably snickers.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is to go trick-or-treating. i love to go to every house and get candy. I dressed up as a demon witch for my costume this year. My favorite Halloween candy is probably a kit-kat.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is watching charlie brown while drinking apple cider with my family. I went trick or treating as a nerd. I thought that it would be a pretty easy costume to pull off. My favorite halloween candy are kit kats.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is trick- or- treating with my friends. I dressed up as a chicken this year because i wanted to be something really funny. My favorite Halloween candy...Hmmmmm...Crunch bars and Laffy Taffys. (King Size)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is going trick-or-treating with my friends. This year I dressed up as Luigi. I wanted to dress up like that because my sister and I wanted to be a "pair", and it worked great. My favorite Halloween candies are Butterfingers and Sour Patch Kids. (:
ReplyDeleteI like going trick or treating with friends. Scaring people is also really fun by popping out and screaming. I went as a crazy directioner or one direction fan because I love them so much. They are my favorite band and I was just crazy about them. So I am that for Halloween! My favorite candy is Reese's and Almond Joys. Yummy I love peanut butter and chocolate and also coconut!!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is to go trick-or-treating! I like trick or treating because it is fun to go get candy with my friends. I went as a basketball player with an afro and humongous shoes. My favorite candy is smarties because they are sugary and good!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite halloween tradition is going trick-or-treating with my friends and family! This halloween I went as a Pink Lady with Margaret! It was really fun and i got a lot of candy. My favorite candy is BUTTERFINGER!!!!!!YUM...
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is going to my cousins house on warm springs and helping them scare the living poop out of the thousands of people that trick or treat at their house. this year, i was a cat, only because it was easy and i had to come up with something at the last minute. My favorite halloween candy is either almond joy or those caramel covered green apple suckers.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is getting dressed up. This Halloween I am going as a flapper girl. I am going as a flapper girl because I liked the outfit and I wanted to try something new. My favorite Halloween candy is kit-kat bars or twix, especially the king size candy bars.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is handing out candy and seeing other people's costumes. I did not dress up this year because I felt too old to dress up.Milky Ways is probably my favorite candybar.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is dressing up. This Halloween I am going as Bat Girl because Batman is my favorite super hero. My favorite Halloween candy is probably Hershey or Tootsie Roll. I have a lot of favorites but those are probably my top ones! :)
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is to dress up, go trick-or-treating, and to carve pumpkins!! I am dressed up as a nerd this year because I think it's funny... :P my favorite candy is... Well... Anything with chocolate in it!! :P :D
ReplyDeleteEvery year my family and I carve pumpkins, toast the seeds and watch a bunch of Halloween movies on the night before Halloween. This year I decided to dress up as Wonder Woman because I wanted to make my own costume this year and my brother thought it would be cool to have me be Wonder Woman and him be Captain America. My favorite candy is twix, but only if it's the king size kind.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is, after trick-or-treating, lay out all my candy along with my brother and sister and count it and then trade with each other for the candy that we want. This year I dressed up as Katniss in Catching Fire because last year I dressed up as Katniss in the Hunger Games and I thought it would be cool to dress up as the same person with a different costume. My favorite Halloween candy is Twix. It's combined with all of my favorite ingredients:chocolate and caramel. That is my Halloween.
ReplyDeleteM favorite Halloween tradition is dressing up and also scaring kids that are older than me that are on the street. This year I went as a really crazy thing. I don't really know what I was. I basically just threw on a ton of stuff and left. My favorite Halloween candy is definitely BUTTER FINGER!!!!!!!!!! Beat candy in the world. :P:):)
ReplyDeletemy favorite Halloween tradition is we have a lot of familys over for chilli before we go trick-or-treating! My dad makes a special chilli and people from all over the neighbor hood come to eat it! This year I was a zombie because I had a dance performance to thriller and I decided to just keep it on. My favorite candy is sour patch kids! :)
ReplyDeletemy favorite Halloween tradition is dressing up and going trick-or-treating with my friends. I dressed up as smurfette because I didn't really feel like putting together a serious costume, and I didn't have time. My favorite Halloween candy is definately the caramel apple lollipops or sweetarts.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is to go trick-or-treating it's a lot of fun and I go with friends. For Halloween this year I'm going to be a big Dinosaur because its purple and it awesome. My favorite candy are smarties, skittles, and paydays.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite halloween tradition is taking candy from strangers. (A.K.A. Trick or treating.) I was mistaken for Ton Sawyer many times, so i was Tom Sawyer. i didn't intend to be to, but I guess I had a great costume for him. My favorite halloween candy is anything that is either full size or king size.
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