HALLOW EEN BY:Cristian, Elena, Fabian and Inhiaki

ORIGI NS Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints' Day, Nowadays, it is an international celebration. The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the Otherworld became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits to pass through. The family's ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off. It is believed that the need to ward off harmful spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks. Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and for winter stores. Bonfires played a large part in the festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The bones of slaughtered livestock were cast into its flames. Sometimes two bonfires would be built side-by- side, and people and their livestock would walk between them as a cleansing ritual.

symbols Many Halloween´s symbols are universal; but others, in each cultural group, the images are seeing from its own perspectives. They can symbolize various forms of death: physical and spiritual; the innocuous thrills that go with what they believe to be little more than a fun; and the genuine evil, the lures of an occult world view manipulated by Satan. For example, associated wih Samhain and the bonefires, bats are compared with the passing from one phase of life to another. Anothes example are black cats. Tthe cat has long been related with otherworldly concepts.. Black is a common color of mystery and the unknown.

jack´o-lantern An old Irish folk tale tells of Stingy Jack, a lazy yet shrewd farmer who uses a cross to trap the Devil. One story says that Jack tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree, and once he was up there Jack quickly placed crosses around the trunk or carved a cross into the bark, so that the Devil couldn't get down. Another myth says that Jack put a key in the Devil's pocket while he was suspended upside-down. Another version of the myth says that Jack was getting chased by some villagers from whom he had stolen, when he met the Devil, who claimed it was time for him to die.

However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to bedevil the church-going villagers chasing him. Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he would pay for the stolen goods; later, when the coin/Devil disappeared, the Christian villagers would fight over who had stolen it. The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver coin and jumped into Jack's wallet, only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack had closed the wallet tight, and the cross stripped the Devil of his powers; and so he was trapped. In both myths, Jack only lets the Devil go when he agrees never to take his soul. After a while Jack died, and, of course, his life had been too sinful to go to heaven; however, the Devil had promised not to take his soul, and so he was out from hell as well. Jack now had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember that would never burn out from the flames of hell. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which was his favourite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o'-Lantern.

LEYENDAS URBANAS Urban Legends are modern, fictional stories told as truth that reached a wide audience by being passed from person to person and town to town. Urban Legends are often myths and are false, however some urban legends are true. The legends that are not true have sometimes been inspired by an actual event, but evolved into something different in their passage from person to person One story tells that Bloody Mery was a really beautifull fifteen years old girl. But she was really vain too, and the centre of her vain was her hair, which she brushed a hundred times every night. For example, the legend of Bloody Mery is one of the most recognized. One day, a man wanted to make her a joke, and he waited in her room until night. When she was in front of the mirror, the man cover her mouth and cut all her hair. She couldn’t see her ugly and she committed suicide. The legend says that if you tell her name three times in front a mirror, she will appear to tear you the eyes. Another story tells that Boody Mery was a seriously ill girl, and her disease can not be cured. The doctor, who was her father, decided to bury her in the garden after four days in coma. He tied a thread with a bell on her wrist, and he went to sleep. At the morning, he went to the garden and he saws the bell down. Immediately, he opened the tomb and he saw that her daughter has blood in her hands. He saw she hasn’t got nails too, because they where embedded at the coffin lid. The believe is that if you say her name three times in front a mirror with three candles, she appears.

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