Why We Celebrate Halloween

    • TNN
    • Publish Date: Oct 29 2016 3:34PM
    • |
    • Updated Date: Oct 31 2016 11:01AM
Why We Celebrate Halloween

10 Things You Never Knew About The Oldest Festival In The World Halloween... (well one of them)

It may not be celebrated with quite as much gusto over here as it is in the West but Halloween is most certainly one of the best known festivals around the world thanks to its constant depiction in films and pop culture. Many of us know its traditions like costume-wearing and trick-or-treating so on the day of Halloween itself we decided to stop skimming the surface and delve a little deeper into all the festivities. Without further ado, here are ten surprising things about Halloween that you (probably) didn't know.

Fact One: The word Halloween was actually derived from the word 'Alholowmesse' which also means 'All Saints Day.' The night before Alholowmesse was also referred to as 'All hallows Even' which was eventually shortened to Halloween as we all know and love it today.  Alternatively though, it has several other names including Snap-apple night, Samhaim, Summer's End, Witches Night, Lamswool and All Hallows' Eve. 

Fact Two: The holiday actually borrows traditions from four different festivals namely The Roman Feralia Festival which commemorates dead spirits, The Roman Pomona Festival which celebrates the goddess of fruit and trees, The Celtic Festival Samuin which refers to the summer's end and the Catholic 'All Soul's Day' which was instigated by the Church to replace the Celtic festival. 

Fact Three: Let's play a numbers game. America celebrates this festival almost exclusively and most widely though Ireland is thought to be its birthpace. 3 billion dollars approximately is spent on costumes, haunted house attractions bring in half a billion dollars annualls and halloween candy sales average around 2 billion dollars per year in the United states. 

Fact Four: Given all of the above-mentioned retail details, is it surprising that Halloween is the second most commercially successful holiday in the world? It comes second only to Christmas.

Fact Five: There are people who suffer from an actual deathly fear of the festival of Halloween and there's a name for it too—Samhainophobia.

Fact Six: Though we're used to seeing carved pumpkins as the most common Jack O'lanterns now, the first ones were actually made from turnips. The tradition of these came about from the Celtic tradition during which they would carve out faces into turnips and place candles inside to keep evil spirits from entering homes or simply to carry around as lanterns. Eventually North Americans replaced this tradition with the carving of pumpkins. 

Fact Seven: Trick or treating too evolved from an ancient Celtic tradition which saw them putting food and treats out in an attempt to placate the spirits which roamed the streets during Samhain, the sacred festival which Halloween partly evolved from. 

Fact Eight: Halloween is one of the oldest festivals in the world. Thought to have originated around 4000 B.C., it has been around for over 6000 years now.

Fact Nine: There are oriental versions of Halloween as well. In China, it is known as Teng Chieh or the Lantern Festival where lanterns shaped like dragons and other animals are hung around houses and streets to help guide spirits back to their earthly homes. In Hong Kong the celebrations are more particularly referred to as Yue Lan or the 'Festival of the Hungry Ghosts.'

Fact Ten: It has been statistically proven that children are more than twice as likely to be killed in a pedestrian/car accident on Halloween rather than any other night.


Thoughts?

Comments

Linet Christina Thomas Ryan International School Nallasopara

Intresting information. In India very less people celebrates Halloween. But catholic Christians in India celebrates All saints day on 1 st November and All Sould day on 2nd November.

Aditi Sahi D C MODEL SCH PKL-SEC-7

The last one really scared me.

Onkarpreet Bhavan Vidyalaya

Why isn''t Halloween celebrated much in India? I am really looking forward to it''s celebration in the country.

E. Deepak Sen Bethel Mat Hr Sec School

I think 10th fact must be a coincidence . If it is not so , then l would never like halloween.

Brenda Marshal PADUA HIGH SCHOOL-MANKHURD

Oops....

Hiya Kilam global indian internatonal school

I had no idea about this......cool information.

Prakash.B Bethel Mat Hr Sec School

QUITE INTERESTING...

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