Showing posts with label Celtic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Celtic. Show all posts

Saturday, October 30, 2021

A History of Halloween-- Part 2: From 'Souling' to Jack-O-Lanterns

The All Saints' Day celebration was also called the All-hallows or All-hallowmas and, the night before it, the traditional Samhain in the Celtic religion, became All hallows  Eve, and eventually, Halloween.  Over the centuries, the three holidays --  All Saints Day, All Souls' Day and Samhain --  essentially merged into just one day, Halloween.

In England and Ireland during the Middle Ages during All Saints; Day and All Souls' Day celebrations, poor people would visit the homes of wealthier  families and receive pastries called soul cakes in exchange for  a promise to pray for the homeowners dead relatives.

This was known as "souling" and became a practice later taken up by children, who would go door-to-door asking for gifts such as food, money and ale-- an early form of trick-or-treating.

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The practice of carving  faces into vegetables became associated with Halloween in Ireland and Scotland around the 1800s.  Jack-o-lanterns originated from an Irish myth about a man named "Stingy Jack" who tricked the devil and was forced to roam the earth with only a burning coal in a turnip to light his way.

People began making their own versions by carving scary faces into vegetables and especially pumpkins and placing them near doors and windows to scare  "Stingy Jack" away.

Like, Boo!!!  --DaCootScary


A History of Halloween: Samhain to All Souls' Day

From the October 25, 2021, History.com. "Halloween Timeline:  How the holiday has changed  over the centuries" by Erik Freeland.

Halloween's origins can be traced back to antiquity.  Most point to Samhain, a Celtic celebration commemorating the end of harvest season and the blurring of the spirit and physical worlds.

Over the ages, Halloween has taking on Christian influences, European myth and American consumerism.

Today, we celebrate it with trick-or-treating, costumes, jack-o-lanterns and scary movies and, of course, that Halloween creep in the stores where the stiff starts appearing in early September.

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In the 7th century, the Catholic Church established November 1 as All Saints' Day, a day commemorating  all the saints of the church..  By the 9th century, Christianity had  come to former Celtic lands with a gradual blending and supplanting of Celtic rites

In 1000 A.D. the church made November 2 All Souls;' Day, a day to honor he dead.

--CootBoo