Halloween Is Local Not International Celeberation Do your people celebrate Halloween?

[kodoks 0]

I am in indonesia and we never celebrate that, because our president say "Hallowen is Europe Culture" what ever...

[kasm 0]

US celebrates it. .. But we celebrate Halloween here....

204412[/snapback]

!. In my first and concluded post ,I have mentioned that US is celeberated it.

 

2. What You , K-General, mean by "Here"?. Which counytry. Put yourself in our shoes and say which country instead of "here". I checked your profile but I didn't find your country either.

 

3. Also using "But we.." means that I said that I put your country in the other group where people do not celebrate it.

[FLaKes 0]

Here in Mexico its half and half. There is the new generation (kids, teens, modern people) who celebrate it, and there is a lot of costume parties, but trick or treating is sort of rare (I think its because its too dangerous). Then there is the older people, or more traditional type that hate it and are trying to abolish it because it is sort of eating up our own tradition which is celebrated on November 2, which is called "dia de muertos" or day of the dead. Everyone sells candy skulls, ornaments, and there even is a bread "Pan de muerto" that is baked especially on this month. Well the celebration is about going to the cementary, remembering the ones who have passed away, they sing them songs, and put lots of things on their graves that they used to like, for example, tequila, favorite foods, play their favorite music, pictures, etc. Then in the morning like 4 am of something like that, people leave the cementary and they dont have to work that day.Kind of scary, but I think its actually fun. My family is sort of modern and we celebrate both though there is no trick or treating or going to the cementary. Costume parties are really fun, and the candy skulls and the bread is good too. I would like both traditions to stay, but this year halloween was really dull and ignored, I guess because it landed on monday.

[conret 0]

On the evening of Oct. 31, millions of people in US and some other countries celebrate Halloween with its symbolism of witches, devils, skeletons, bats and black cats.

 

Children are dressing up as ghosts and monsters . Many parents encourage their children to celebrate Halloween, assuming it to be harmless and innocent fun. In recent times, children have taken up the practice of dressing in Halloween costumes and visiting homes in search of edible and monetary treats, lightly threatening to play a trick on the owner if a treat is not produce. While this allows children to have fun and enjoy a little harmless fun but some criminal activities go under these masks.

 

Moreover, I don't understand parents [either believers or atheists] allow their children to celebrate witches and goblins, they are teaching them that it's acceptable to deal in demonism and witches. History shows that behind the dark mask of this popular children's holiday reside the terrors of an ancient Celtic festival renamed All Hallows Eve.

 

Where, how and when did such strange customs begin?

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead supposedly rose from their graves to walk the earth.

 

By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. The first was a day in late October when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead. The second was a day to honor the Roman goddess of fruit and trees with Apple as its symbol This probably explains the tradition of "bobbing" for apples that is practiced today on Halloween.

 

Centuries later, Irish and Scottish immigrants brought the custom of Halloween with them to US. After massive immigration of the Irish to the United States during the great potato famine in Ireland (1845-46), Halloween eventually became a national event in US.

 

In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is believed that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related Christian holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas.

 

We in Australia we do not in general celeberate it. Also Egyptian, Russian, Greek do not celeberate it.

 

I want to know whether people in your country celeberate Halloween?

200103[/snapback]

Holloween was not always a fun holiday as i agree with you, and still today for some people it isn't. In Russia(where im from). There is a religon thant they belive in the devil and worship him. I used to have a neighbor who did that kind of things and every friday they would have a ritual and sing songs and i could hear the songs in the middle of the night. They would do wierd things like carry a piese of string with them and when you would pass then they would make a wierd noise. And I remmember a book i checked out from the library a month ago and it was about a religon named Wicca and they do spells and the book talked about their past and it said about holloween and that its a day where the Wiccan people would get undressed under the moonlight and dance. drink, do rituals. So I dont know how this ritual that was ment to worship the devil enered our colture but it isn't right to celebrate the day the devil broke off from Heven and do sinlly things like drink and party.