Essay About Halloween

Halloween is widely celebrated and known, but most people who celebrate this holiday don’t know the true origin and why it is celebrated. Halloween has lost its meaning in the modern world, it is a holiday only for fun, parties, candy, rotting teeth, and scaring people. I think the origin behind Halloween is better than what we make it out to be today. Halloween’s earliest trace is the Celtic festival, Samhain, which is the last day of the Celtic calendar; also known as summer’s end. Summer’s end is mark for end of harvest and the transition to winter which is important to the Celts because they live off of the plants they grow and the animals they raise. Halloween is often traced back to the Druids which is a Celtic culture in Ireland, Britain, and northern Europe.

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Feralia is for the passing of the dead and Pomona is the goddess of fruits and trees. Bobbing for apples was one activity they did to honor Pomona because apples were the symbol for her. Christians wanted to replace Samhain with All Saint’s day in 835. The children celebrated All Saint’s Day by doing the Danse Macabre which is translated to Dance of Death. Danse Macabre is used to summon the dead (University of Albany pg.1). Christians created All Hallows Eve, the evening before All Saints Day, to convert pagans (Harrison College). Halloween is often thought of a holiday were people can be scared and others can scare out of fun. This aspect of Halloween became very prominent after Michael Myers was introduced in 1978. This also began the Halloween tradition of releasing horror movies in October (Hicks). Most people only celebrate this holiday today because of the candy and the fun, not many people know the history of Halloween and how it became what it is today. When people do think they know the history of Halloween, they often confuse it with another day known as Day of the Dead. What is this holiday and how is it