Halloween By: Jerry Stieg

The History Halloween originated in Pagan Ireland as the festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), and becoming All Hallow’s Eve in Christian times. Over two thousand years ago, the Celtic people who lived in France and the British Isles observed a calendar that began and ended with their new Year’s Eve festival every October 31/November 1. The festival was called Samhain, which means “summers end”. This marks the “death” of the old year and the “birth” of the next. It was also regarded as the day of the dead, a night devoted to the practices of magic and divination, a time when fairy folk and god was especially active, and a festival to celebrate the harvest. The Ancient Celts believed an invisible veil existed that separated the worlds of the living and the dead. At sundown on the last day of the year, this veil grew to its thinnest point, allowing the living and the dead to make contact with each other.

Cont. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV introduced All Saint’s Day to honor God and the early Christians who died for their religious beliefs. This festival of the Catholic Church was originally on may 13, but in the year 900, Gregory III changed the date to November 1 in an effort to supplant the old Samhain festival of the dead. All Saints’ Day was now called All Hallows’ Day and Hallowmas (Hallow means “holy”), and the evening before it (October 31) was therefore known as All Hallows’ Eve. Eventually it evolved into the word Hallowe’en, later it was spelled Halloween. Halloween was brought to the United States by the Irish Immigrants in the Nineteenth century which followed the potato famine of the 1840s.The Pagan roots of Halloween caused problems in many religious groups at the time. However Halloween’s popularity with the youth, outweighed the oppositions attempts to ban the celebration in the United States.

Pumpkins They always are made into jack-o-lanters, that’s just part of Halloween

Candy! Little kids love to go trick-or-treating for candy

Scary Politics, they are scary = =