Evento tradicional e cultural Halloween

Halloween

Is a traditional and cultural event, which occurs mainly in English-speaking countries, but with particular relevance in the US Canada, Ireland and the UK, whose origin celebrations of ancient peoples Celtas.

Official name: Halloween

Type: Secular

Followed by: World

Date: 31 October

Dawn start on 31st October

Termination of the Midnight October 31

Etymology

The first record of the term "Halloween" is about 1745. It derived from the contraction of the Scottish term "Allhallow-Eve" (Eve of All Saints Day), which was the night of witches. 5 In Christianity there is the custom of celebration of Vésperas.No calls last religious service of the day, after dark, we celebrate the day that lies vir.Na Ancient Celtic Religion existed Samhain, the Feast of the Dead (in Christianity is celebrated the day November 2) .With the Christianization of the British Isles, most of Celtic, there was a mixture of the customs of the two religions.

Since, between sunset sunsets of October and 1st of November 31, there was a holy night (hallow evening, in English), it is believed that thus gave rise to the present name of the party: Hallow Evening Hallowe 'en Halloween. Quickly concludes that the term Halloween is not used by English-speaking peoples, this being just a designation of the peoples of language (official) Portuguese.

Another hypothesis is that the Catholic Church to eliminate the days of Martin Luther, who was the founder of the Protestant church, said that salvation is by grace and not by works (indulgences). This day would be known in English-speaking countries such as Day of Martin Luther.

This designation was perpetuated and the celebration of Halloween, brought to the United States by Irish immigrants in the nineteenth century was well known as "halloween", a historical legend .

History

The origin of Halloween brings the traditions of the peoples who inhabited the islands of Gaul and Britain between the years 600 BC and 800 AD, although the differences with brands regarding current or pumpkins of many famous phrase "trick or treating" exported by the United States, which popularized the celebration. Originally, Halloween was not related to witches. It was a festival of the Celtic calendar of Ireland, the festival of Samhain, celebrated between October 30 and November 2 and marked the end of summer (samhain literally means "end of summer").

The celebration of Halloween comes from two sources that the course of history were mingling:

Pagan origin

The pagan origin of the "Halloween" has to do with the Celtic celebration called Samhain, which aimed to give cult of the dead and goddess YuuByeol (ancient Celtic symbol of perfection). The invasion of the British Isles by the Romans (46 BC) finished mixing the Latin culture with Celtic, the latter of which eventually waned with time. At the end of the second century, with the evangelization of these territories, the religion of the Celts, called Druidism, had disappeared in most communities. We know little about the religion of the Druids, because it is not written anything about it: everything was transmitted orally from generation to generation. It is known that the festivities were celebrated Samhan quite possibly between the 5th and 7th of November (halfway between the autumnal equinox and the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere). Were preceded by a series of celebrations that lasted a week, and gave the Celtic new year. The "feast of the dead" was one of his most important dates, as celebrated for what Christians would be "heaven and earth" (concepts that only came with Christianity). To the Celts, the place of the dead was a place of perfect happiness, where there would be no hunger or pain. The celebrations were presided over by the Druid priests, who acted as "mediums" between people and their ancestors. It was also said that the spirits of the dead returned on that date to visit their former homes and guide your family toward another world.

Catholic origin

From the fourth century the Church of Syria consecrated a day to celebrate "All Martyrs". Three centuries later Pope Boniface IV († 615) became a Roman temple dedicated to all gods (Pantheon) a Christian temple and dedicated it to "All Saints," to all who have gone before us in faith. The feast in honor of All Saints was initially celebrated on May 13, but Pope Gregory III († 741) changed the date to November 1, which was the day of the dedication of the Chapel of All Saints Basilica in St. Peter's in Rome. Later, in the year 840, Pope Gregory IV ordered that the feast of All Saints was celebrated universally. How big party, this also won their evening celebration or alertness that prepares the feast the day before (October 31). In English translation, this watch was called All Hallow's Eve (Vigil of All Saints), after passing through the forms All Hallowed Eve and "All Hallow Een" to reach the current word "Halloween".

Currently

If you look at how Halloween is celebrated today, we see that has little to do with its origins: only left an allusion to the dead, but with a completely different character than it had at first. Also was being gradually incorporated a number of elements foreign to both the party and the Souls of All Saints.

Among the added elements, we have for example the custom of "disguises", quite possibly born in France between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. At that time Europe was plagued by the Black Death and bubonic plague wiped out nearly

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