The traditions of Halloween started further back than you
may think. The origin of the celebration
can be traced back to the Celtics in Ireland more than 2000 year ago. Since then the traditions have grown and
changed with influences from the Roman, the Catholics, and America.
The first Halloween celebrations are more than 2000 years
old. The ancient Celtics would celebrate
the end of summer and the beginning of winter on the first of November. They believed the day before, October 31,
called Samhain, the boundaries between the living and the dead were
blurred. On this day, the ghosts of the
dead visit Earth. In addition to
potentially damaging crops and causing mayhem, the ghosts were believed to
predict the future. The Celtics would
dress in costume, usually animal skins in order to welcome the ghosts.
In 43 AD., the Romans conquered most of the Celtic
land. After many years of merging cultures,
two Roman celebrations were combined with Samhain. The first is Feralia, the day the Romans
honor their dead and the second is a day honoring Pomona, the goddess of fruits
and trees. Pomona’s is symbolized by the
apple, which is possibly where the tradition of bobbing for apples may have
originated.
Between the years of 609 and 1000 AD., the celebration was
further modified by the papal decrees commemorating All Souls Day on November 2nd
and All Saints Day on November 1st.
All Saints Day was also known as All-hallows, therefore making the day
prior All-hallows eve or Halloween.
The traditions continued to evolve as people moved to
America. First the holiday was heavily
resisted by most colonists given the strict Protestant views of the colonies.
But as time moves on, the holiday gained traction. There are reasons behind all of the traditions
of Halloween, from the idea of saying “Trick or Treat”, to handing out candy,
to avoiding walking under ladders or not allowing a black cat to cross your
path. From its early beginnings of a
Celtic celebration, it has morphed into the second largest commercial holiday
in the United States.
What is your favorite Halloween tradition? If you are dressing up this year, what are
you going as? Why? What is your favorite Halloween candy?
My favorite Halloween tradition would have to be carving pumpkins and going to the pumpkin patch! I am going to dress up but I have no idea what I will dress as...yet. My favorite Halloween candies are Almond Joys. I love coconut and I used to get my brothers' on Halloween after sorting our bags of candy because they don't like coconut.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition would be carving pumpkins and baking the seeds for eating. I am dressing up this year, i'm going as wonder woman. I have a lot a favorite halloween candy, but i'd have to say my most favorite is a kitkat.
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite tradition is still trick or treating, even though I may not do it anymore. Pumpkin carving is also a great tradition. I have really no idea if am going to dress up this year. I will probably dress up if my friend does. My favorite candy is Hershey's chocolate bars, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't eat other candies.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is trick or treating with all of my friends. I'm dressing up as a basketball player because I love basketball. My favorite candy is skittles.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite halloween tradition is having a lot of friends over to my house every halloween. We have a stuffed house and then we go out to get the candy. Once we get back then we go to Reed's house and that is a lot of fun too. We get to scare a bunch of the people that go to Reed's, because a lot of people go. I am dressing up as a hawaiian because I got a ukulele and a hawaiian print skateboard to go along with our Christmas trip to Hawaii. My favorite candy is skittles, too.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is pumpkin carving, I like cutting things with sharp objects, I also like the scary faces on it. This year I didn't go trick or treating but I did dress up. I wore this costume that made me blend in to the bushes and I popped out at people all night. That was really fun and will be my new favorite tradition. My favorite candy is definitely sour patch kids.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is hiding in the bushes and pooping out to scare the people passing by. I dressed up as my mom. Strange.. i think not. ;) I went as that because my mom told me to go as her, and it makes her feel good! My favorite candy is Twix. I love Twix.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition would have to be dressing up and meeting up with friends to just hang around the neighborhood. I still dress up, and this year I dressed up as s/s/s (Sufjan Stevens, Son Lux, and Serengeti all in one person, it is also a band), no one knew who I was. I dressed up as this because I wanted to show my love for the band s/s/s as well as just a way to continue to be a fan to my long time idol, Sufjan Stevens. My favorite Halloween candy would have to be just suckers, I don't know, I try not to eat too much sugar. But this Halloween was fun, I always look forward to next year.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is eating pumpkin seeds after making the Jack-O-Lanterns. I didn't go trick-or-treating this year (discontinuing that tradition, sadly) so I didn't have anything to dress up as. My favorite candy is jolly rancher chews. They're like starbursts, but without the disgusting part.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition would be the same as Nate's; eating the baked pumpkin seeds. I wasn't planning to go trick-or-treating this year but the Sirhalls, Raquel, Liza, Nekane and I ended up going after all. I ended up being a cat burglar. Those were just the things that were lying around the house that I could make a costume out of. My favorite candy is probably Snickers.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is rewatching Supernatural episodes in the dark alone as I freak myself out by doing so. Rylie made me a dinosaur hoodie so I was a dinosaur even though I didn't go trick-or-treating this year, and my favorite candy is Sour Patch Kids, they are the best.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite halloween tradition is carving pumpkins and going house to house getting tons of candy. My favorite cand is Butterfingers. I am going trick or treating but I don't know what im going to be. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!
ReplyDeleteFor halloween I was a monkey
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition would be carving pumpkins and hanging out with friends and family. This year I was dressed up as super women. My favorite type of candy would be Reese's peanut butter cups.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is carving pumpkins, baking the pumpkin seed, eating the seeds, and most of all going trick-or-treating with my friends. This year I was Bat-girl. I was a superhero because Lily, Adriana, Claire, and I all were superheroes and went together. My favorite candy is either the mini Hershey bars or milky ways.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is decorating the house with my dad. My dad and I share a love for scary things, and Halloween is when we can truly celebrate that side of us. Everything from the staircase to lamps and basement to balcony is decorated. The hard part is putting the stuff away though :( This year I first went as a skeleton dress thing, because my mom wanted me too. She likes it when I get girly things. Then on Halloween night I went as a Zombie because, you know, zombies. My favorite Halloween candy is candy corn.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say that the blood for the zombie turned out hot pink, but it was still fun.
DeleteMy Favorite Halloween tradition is having all our friends over to go trick-or-treating and then watching a scary movie. This year I dressed as a wolf because my other costume wasn't as suited for the cold weather. We also watched The Conjuring when we came back, but some of our friends chickened out and played X-box instead. My favorite candy are Milkyways because they were my grandpa's favorite.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition for Halloween is playing the scariest video game I have after the trick-or-treaters have returned to their homes. I am not dressing up and my favorite candy is Twix.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is getting together with our friends and family at my uncles house. This Halloween we cut our trick-or -treating short and went to the football game at Dona Larson with my brother and my older cousin.I dressed up as a referee because my brother made a costume out of a black shirt and tape. My favorite candy is mike and ikes
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition is getting together with friends and getting loads of candy. For me that means getting myself really, really sick the next day. This year I'm going as a bee. I wanted to go as that because bees are pretty, but have a little sting to them. My favorite candy is the crunch bar and the york mint.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is simply just taking my younger brother and sister around trick-or-treating. When you see the happiness in their eyes after getting the candy, you feel happy too. This year I dressed up as Bruno Mars. He is my favorite singer and I had clothes similar to his usual style. It was a win-win situation. My favorite candy is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition would be carving pumpkins with my family. I love trying to compete with my family to see who has the best pumpkin. This year I dressed up as a superhero. I dressed up as a superhero because we needed a good theme for all of my friends to do. My favorite Halloween candy is either trix or kit kat.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition would be carving pumpkins and going to the corn maze with my family. I ended up actually going trick-or-treating this year because originally my friends and I we're just going to watch scary movies but we decided to go one last time after all. I went as a minion from Despicable Me. I guess I wanted to go as them because they are just so awesome. My favorite all time Halloween candy would be candy corns :))
ReplyDeleteI have two main traditions. First, I get out the Halloween decorations and decorate the house. Second, we go pumpkin picking then carve out the pumpkins and roast the seeds. This year my pumpkin was a headless horsemen. I dressed up as a Gothic red-riding hood-type thing this year, because it was one of the only good costumes that fit me at the Halloween store and something that I could actually work with. My favorite candy is either M+M's or Kit Kats.
ReplyDeleteWe don't usually do much in our household around Halloween. I guess that's just because we basically live out in the middle of nowhere, and don't really have the need to decorate our house or give out candy. We aren't the go-all-out-for-Halloween kind of people. We usually just stay at home and eat store-bought candy while chilling out on the couch. I didn't dress up this year and didn't go to any Halloween parties. My favorite Halloween candy would have to be Snickers, but I could devour any brand!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition would have to be either carving pumpkins with my family or taking my little sister trick or treating. I think this is because my little sister always gets so excited when she gets an new piece of candy at each house. And carving pumpkins with my family because you can carry some thing different every year and always turn out different each time. I am going to be an 80's person this year because I thought it would be fun and we did not have to go to the store and buy a store bought costume. My favorite candy is m and m's because they last along time and you don't have to eat them all at ounce.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is going out and trick or treating with my friend and sister and dad. My dog always pulls the wagon that we bring around trick or treating. Also, our house is always very very decorated. We have a life size talking creepy scare crow, a light up creepy tree, graves, fog machine, pumpkins, skeletons, and much more. This year I went as super woman for a school party and a dead doll for trick or treating. I always like to be something scary because it is fun to put on the scary makeup. My favorite candy is jolly ranchers.
ReplyDeleteThe big tradition I used to love on Halloween was going trick or treating and carving the pumpkins and laughing at how awful all of our designs were. But sadly my tradition of trick or treating was ended with me now have to just hand out candy on Halloween ;_;. But usually I would go in old character of one of my favorite games and work with that. But there was one house where I loved the giant Hershey's bars they gave you.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Halloween tradition is probably either carving pumpkins, eating candy, going trick or treating, or dressing up in costumes. I would probably have to say that carving pumpkins are my favorite because when your carving you can do what you want win the pumpkin and be creative, like making a sports symbol on the face of the pumpkin. This year I was supposed to be the cookie monster for the third year in a row, but I couldn't find the costume and I finally gave up looking for it after 1 hour. That's how much it meant to me. Instead of being the cookie monster I just went as a guy with a huge afro with sun glasses and a weird tang top. It was pretty fun Halloween. My favorite Halloween candy is probably a king size reeses that are shaped like kit kats.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition for Halloween is probably handing out the candy to kids because it's really fun to see the kids excited, even if you're not dressing up. For Halloween I dressed up as a lifeguard because I wanted to try something different this year. My favorite candy has always been KitKats.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteTo get a lot of candy and to trade the candy and watch scary movies! a baby. because it was last minute and I liked it.Kit Kat and twirler's.
Essentially nothing, I just go with what was planned and dress up in what seems appropriate, unless I find out it is Halloween at 7PM on the 31st where I just grab something and bam, instant costume, but my favorite candy would have to be m&m's
ReplyDeleteMY favorite part was doing the trick or treating, or going to a Halloween party. I dressed up as a pirate because my and nate are big fans of them. My favorite candy would be M&M's.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMy favorite tradition on Halloween is coming home from trick or treating, and dumping all the candy on the floor to see what I got. This year I went dressed as a robber. I choose to be a robber because I think it was an easy and fun costume. There is a lot of candy I like but If I had to pick a favorite I think it would be snickers.