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Pubblicazione realizzata dalla Scuola Media Statale “I. Nievo” di Mansuè, Dicembre 2001 |
Today Halloween is a very popular festival in the U.S.A.(it’s in every American calendar), in the U.K. and in the world. It is a festival of fun. Children and young people wear scary costumes and masks and they play the game “Trick or Treat”; they go from house to house ringing the bells and asking for some sweets, nuts or money. If they don’t get anything, they play some “good” tricks. People put Jack o’Lanterns outside the houses, they have parties where they eat nuts, popcorn, pumpkin pies, apple pies, toffee apples, spicy ginger cookies and they drink apple cider. At the parties they play games with apples, for example the game “bobbing for apples”. Michele e Sara Sandri (2 H) |
Halloween
is a very ancient festivity, about two thousand years old. Its origins go
back to the Celts who lived in Ireland and Scotland. On 31st
October they celebrated Samhain, the god of death. This date was important
in the Celtic calendar because it marked the end of the year and the end
of the summer. On this date people believed that evil spirits went around
freely at night. So people made big fires and dressed scary costumes and
masks to frighten them away. They danced and played games with apples
because apples were sacred fruit and predicted good luck. The druids, that
is the Celtic priests, predicted the future about weather, harvest, health
and marriages.
With
the Romans this date became the harvest festival. The Romans celebrated
Pomona, the goddess of harvest. Anyway the name “Halloween” didn’t
come from the Celts or the Romans, it came from the Christian religion.
According to it 31st October was All Hallows’ Eve (that is
All Saints’ Eve). These three words originated the word Halloween. At
the beginning this festival was celebrated in the U.K. Then, in the 19th
century, the Irish immigrants brought it to the U.S.A.