SYDNEY GHOST TOURS PARANORMAL HAUNTED HOUSE DISCOVERY TOUR SYDNEY, NSW, AUSTRALIA
  • Home
  • Our Ghost Tours - Sydney
    • Haunted Sydney Ghost Tour
    • "Ghouls Night Out" Ghost tour Sydney
    • Full Moon Ghost tour
    • Family Ghost Tours
  • Anzac History Tours
  • Group Ghost Tour bookings - corporate team building and social groups
  • Gift Certificates
  • Local Restaurants
  • Hera - the Ghost Guard dog
  • About Us
  • Why come on Sydney Ghost Tours
  • Terms of trade
  • Blog

What is Halloween?

10/8/2010

0 Comments

 
What is Halloween?
Picture
 It would be easy to think that Halloween is a creation of the United States of America, and spread through popular mediums like television and movies to other parts of the English speaking world. But you would be wrong - it goes back much, much further than that, to the Celtic peoples of Western France, Scotland and Ireland, pre-dating the Roman empire.

Halloween is an annual holiday observed on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain, that was taken over by the later creation of the Christian holiday All Saints Day, but is today largely a non-religious celebration.

Common Halloween activities include trick or treating, wearing costumes, and attending costume parties, carving jack-o-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, committing pranks, telling ghost stories or other frightening tales, and watching horror films.

History of Halloween

According to Wikipedia, historian Nicholas Rogers, exploring the origins of Halloween, notes that while "some folklorists have detected its origins in the Roman feast of Pomona, the goddess of fruits and seeds, or in the festival of the dead called Parentalia, it is more typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain, whose original spelling was Samuin (pronounced sow-an or sow-in)".

The name is derived from Old Irish, and means roughly "summer's end". A similar festival was held by the ancient Britons and is known as Calan Gaeaf ( pronounced Kálan Gái av).

The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year and beginning of the "darker half", and is sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year".

The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the OtherWorld / spirit realm, became thin on Samhain, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) 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. Their purpose was to disguise yourself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid being harmed. Evil spirits were stated to go looking for bodies to possess – and dressing up as a ghoul was a way of discouraging them, by effectively hanging a “no vacancy” sign over your head.  In Scotland the spirits were impersonated by young men dressed in white with masked, veiled or blackened faces.  Samhain was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock 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.

Another common practice was fortune telling, which often involved the use of food and drink.

The name 'Halloween' and many of its present-day traditions derive from the Old English era.

Origin of the name Halloween

The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Eve, that is, the night before All Hallows Day. Although the phrase All Hallows is found in Old English (ealra hálȝena mæssedæȝ, the feast of all saints), All-Hallows-Even is itself not attested until 1556.


0 Comments
    shareYahoo Invisible
    LikeUs

    Author
    Daniel Phillips, Principal, SydneyGhostTour.Com

    Archives

    January 2017
    July 2016
    September 2013
    June 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    April 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    April 2010
    December 2009

    Categories

    All
    100th Anniversary Of Anzac
    100th Anniversary Of Gallipoli
    15 Minutes Of Fame
    1st Battalion Aif Ww1
    Anzac
    Anzac Day 2011
    Armistice Day
    Armistice Day Tour
    Artarmon
    Australia Day
    Australia Day Hidden Heritage Ghost Tour
    Blues Point
    Cammeray
    Cemetery Tour
    Chatswood
    Christmas
    Christmas Ghost Tour
    Christmas Ghost Tours
    Christmas History In Australia
    Christmas Office Party
    Christmas Party
    Christmas Traditions
    Classic Rock 95.3 Fm
    Crows Nest
    Eco-cremation
    Emf Meters To Find Ghosts
    Family Friendly Ghost Tour
    Family Ghost Tour
    Family Ghost Tours Sydney
    Family Ghost Tours Sydney Halloween
    Famous Burials At Rookwood
    Famous People Buried At Rookwood
    Flushing Your Relative Down The Drain
    Friday 13th Ghost Tour
    Friday 13th Legends
    Friday The 13th
    Friday The 13th January
    Gallipoli
    Ghost Date
    Ghost Haunt
    Ghost Hunt
    Ghost Hunting
    Ghosts
    Ghosts Of Christmas Past
    Ghost Tour
    Ghost Tour Display
    Ghost Tour Groups
    Ghost Tour Of Historic Sydney
    Ghost Tours
    Ghost Tours In Sydney
    Ghost Tours Picton
    Ghost Tours Sydney
    Ghost Tours Sydney Australia
    Ghost Tours Sydney North Shore
    Ghost Tour Sydney
    Gordon
    Gore Hill
    Green Cremation
    Halloween
    Halloween Ghost Tours
    Halloween Ghost Tours Sydney
    Halloween Parties
    Halloween Songs
    Halloween Tours
    Halloween Week
    Haunted
    Haunted Ghost
    Haunted Haunted
    Haunted House
    Haunted House Sydney
    Haunted Mansion
    Haunting
    History Of Artarmon
    History Of Blues Point
    History Of Cammeray
    History Of Chatswood
    History Of Christmas
    History Of Crows Nest
    History Of Gordon
    History Of Gore Hill
    History Of Halloween
    History Of Hornsby
    History Of Killara
    History Of Lane Cove
    History Of Lavender Bay
    History Of Lindfield
    History Of Milsons Point
    History Of North Sydney
    History Of Pymble
    History Of Roseville
    History Of St Ives
    History Of St Leonards
    History Of Thornleigh
    History Of Turramurra
    History Of Wahroonga
    History Of Waitara
    History Of Warrawee
    History Of Waverton
    History Of Willoughby
    History Of Wollestonecraft
    Holiday Ghost Tour
    Hornsby
    How To Deal With A Haunted House
    How To Find Ghosts
    How To Hunt Ghosts
    Inflatable Skull
    Is My House Haunted
    July School Holidays
    Killara
    Lane Cove
    Lavender Bay
    Lindfield
    Liz Vincent Ghost Tours
    Lower Picton Ghost Tour
    Messenger Ghost
    Milsons Point
    Mortuary Railway
    Mortuary Station
    North Shore Anzacs
    North Shore Anzac Tour
    North Shore Ghost Tour
    North Shore Ghost Tours
    North Sydney
    Organising A Ghost Tour
    Paranormal
    Paranormal Activity
    Paranormal Activity In My Home
    Paranormal Experiences
    Paranormal Ghost Tour
    Paranormal Ghost Tours
    Paranormal Haunted House
    Paranormal Investigation
    Paranormal Tours
    Picton Ghost Tour
    Picton Ghost Tours
    Picton Ghost Tour Shut Down
    Picton Ghost Tour Wollondilly Council
    Picton History Tours
    Poltergeist
    Poltergeists
    Pymble
    Remembrance Day 2010
    Remembrance Day Tour
    Residual Hauntings
    Resomation
    Resomator
    Rookwood
    Rookwood Cemetery
    Rookwood Necropolis
    Roseville
    Rules For Office Christmas Parties
    School Holiday Activities
    School Holiday Activities Sydney
    School Holiday Fun
    School Holiday Ghost Tour
    School Holiday Ideas
    St Ives
    St Leonards
    Sydney Anzacs
    Sydney Ghost Tour
    Sydneyghosttour.com
    Sydney Ghost Tours
    Sydney Ghost Tours Rocks
    Sydney Historic Ghost
    Sydney North Shore Ghost Tour
    Thornleigh
    Top 10 Classic Rock Songs
    Top 10 Songs
    Trick Or Treat
    Trick Or Treat - Don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
    Turramurra
    Valentines Day Ghost Tour
    Valentines Day Ghost Tours
    Valentine To Die For
    Victorian Cemetery
    Victorian Era Cemeteries
    Wahroonga
    Waitara
    Warrawee
    Waverton
    Weimaraner Sing Along Music
    What Is A Ghost
    What Is Halloween?
    Why Do People Wear Halloween Costumes
    Willoughby
    Wollestonecraft
    Ww1 Memorials

    RSS Feed

We Would Love to Have You Visit Soon!


Hours

Open 7 days

Telephone

+61 02 8197 0363

Stay in touch

Become a " Crypt Insider"! details on our home page...

  • Home
  • Our Ghost Tours - Sydney
    • Haunted Sydney Ghost Tour
    • "Ghouls Night Out" Ghost tour Sydney
    • Full Moon Ghost tour
    • Family Ghost Tours
  • Anzac History Tours
  • Group Ghost Tour bookings - corporate team building and social groups
  • Gift Certificates
  • Local Restaurants
  • Hera - the Ghost Guard dog
  • About Us
  • Why come on Sydney Ghost Tours
  • Terms of trade
  • Blog