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Halloween is neither the worship of satan nor any of his agents. The term "Halloween", which means All Hallows Eve, originated from the Catholic Church. November 1st is the day the Catholic Church observes All Hallows or All Saints Day, to honor it's saints. The holiday was originally called Samhain, the Celtic New Year. During the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer and the year both officially ended October 31st. The belief was that on that day, the spirits of all who had died during the previous year, would return in search of living bodies to possess for the next year, their only hope for life after death. No one wanted to be possessed so, during Samhain, villagers would make their homes cold, dark and undesirable. Spirits looking for bodies to possess were frightened away by the Celts dressing in strange costumes, going out into the streets and being as destructive as possible. Celts burned people at the stake who were thought to be possessed. These burnings were carried out as a warning to the spirits.
After the Roman Empire invaded Celtic Ireland, the Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. They abandoned any practice of sacrificing humans in favor of burning effigies during the first century AD. The practice of dressing up as goblins, ghosts and witches became more of a ceremonial role as belief in spirit possession dropped.
The Celts did not start the Halloween custom of "trick or treating". There was a ninth century European custom called souling. Christians would walk from village to village November 2nd, All Souls Day, begging for "soul cakes". Prayers were promised to be said on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors of these soul cakes. The belief at that time was that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death and that soul pass into heaven quicker through the power of prayer.
The Jack-o-lantern custom comes from Irish folklore. There was a notorious drunkard and trickster named Jack, who tricked Satan into climbing a tree and trapped him there by carving a cross in the tree's trunk. Jack and the devil struck up a deal that, if the devil would never tempt him again, Jack would let him down from the tree. After Jack died, he could not get into Heaven because of his evil ways. But because he had tricked the devil, he was denied access to Hell. Satan gave him a single ember to light the darkness as he wandered throughout eternity. That ember was placed inside a hollowed out turnip to keep it glowing longer. Turnips were used as "Jack's lanterns" originally, but when Irish immigrants brought the practice of Halloween to America in the 1840's, pumpkins were easier to get than turnips. The first Jack-O- Lanterns in America were pumpkins hollowed out and lit with an ember.A favorite trick before indoor plumbing was the tipping over of outhouses.
Halloween is the perfect family holiday today, allowing parents and children to spend time together decorating, making costumes, carving Jack-O-Lanterns, and having parties. Halloween is an exciting time for children that allows kids of all ages to use their imagination and fantasies to become people who they admire as well as creatures to scare the rest of us. Best of all, its a time to dress up and have fun.
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