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'Twas Halloween night and all through the sky,
The clouds hid the moon as the bats glided by.
I was dressed all in white in my mama's old sheet,
Walking with friends down the ghost-haunted street.
All the kids were dressed in bright costumed array,
While flashlights and street lights guided our way.
We giggled and laughed as we hurried to each door,
Ringing or knocking, then laughing some more.
There were pumpkins aglow and skeletons dangling,
Scarecrows and shadows and silver chains clanging.
Grownups in masked faces opened doors in greeting,
As we stood with our bags and waited for treating.
Some people say that we should not have this night,
That too many kids are harmed by the sights or the fright -
But it's the one time a year when we can pretend to be
Someone else for a while, not you - not even me.
-
Let them celebrate now, as the bats glide on by,
For childhood is brief, like the blink of an eye.
Listen to their laughter and let the children be
Someone else for a while, not you and not even me.
Judith A. Lindberg
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Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it
actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom
originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or
is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?
Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins
going back thousands of years. The holiday we know as
Halloween has had many influences from many cultures
over the centuries.
From the Roman's Pomona Day,
to the Celtic festival of
Samhain, to the Christian
holidays of All Saints and All Souls Days.
Halloween, is celebrated mostly in North America,
and Western and Central Europe. The origin of
Halloween dates back about 2000 years to the first
millennium B.C. around a
Celtic celebration of the
dead which was held on the 1st of
November,
which just happened to be the Celtic New Year
( two thousand years ago it wasn’t called November).
In Celtic mythology, on this day the souls of those
who had died that year returned to the land of the living.
By the end of the 1st century the Celts were
conquered by the Holy Roman Empire, which
began adapting and absorbing those
traditions
as part of their own religious observances.
They blended Samhain customs with another festival
honoring Pomona, goddess of the fruit trees
(there’s some speculation
among scholars that this
is where the tradition of bobbing for
apples comes from).
Then, as Christianity began to flourish in Europe,
Halloween began to take on an ominous and
devilish feel. It became mixed with Christian myths
of demons and evil spirits. As the myths
and legends began to grow around the holiday,
and as other cultures
began to adapt it to their
own religious customs and beliefs,
it became more and more entrenched in the occult.
In the year 835 AD the Roman Catholic Church
would make November
1st a church holiday to
honor all the saints. This day was called
All Saint's Day, or Hallowmas, or All Hallows.
Years later the Church would make November 2nd
a holy day. It was called All Souls Day and was
honor the dead. It was celebrated with big
bonfires, parades, and people dressing up as
saints, angels and devils.
But the spread of Christianity did not make people
forget their early
customs. On the eve of
All Hallows, Oct. 31, people continued to
celebrate the festivals of Samhain and Pomona
Day
. Over the years the customs from all these holidays
mixed. October 31st became known
as All Hallow Even, eventually All Hallow's Eve,
Hallowe'en, and then
Halloween.
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