In the US (and Europe) every year at the end of October, people are busy preparing for Halloween. This is a festival that starts on the evening of October 31 until 12 midnight. On this occasion, children and teenagers are allowed to wear “Halloween costumes” to go from house to house, knock on doors to receive candy and congratulate… As is customary, children often carry lanterns made of pumpkin skins that are made from pumpkin skins. chiseled in the shape of a human face to let light through…
Halloween parties often revolve around topics such as luck in the world, stories about ghosts and witches… The original meaning of the word "Hallow" is Holy. Halloween is an abbreviation for "All Hallows Evening."
Traditions on Halloween
“Trick Or Treat” This is the main activity of most children and teenagers in the United States on Halloween night.
"Trick" originally means: trick, naughty ghost game: "Treat" is to welcome, be kind, and treat. Children and teenagers, young people dressed up with clothes and masks of ghosts, then carried lanterns from house to house in the neighborhood, knocking on the door and saying "trick or treat." This sentence means: "If you want us to not play bad, then treat us to something." Usually, neighbors always want to avoid "trick" that is to play tricks, so they often treat them with candy and fruit (according to the custom with coins inside).
The main symbol of the night "Halloween" is Jack's lantern - "Jack-ó-lanterns." The secondary symbols are the witch, the devil, and the black cat.
The Legend of Halloween
According to Irish legend, the word "Jack-ó-lanterns" came from a man named Jack. Jack is a dead teenager, but his soul is not allowed to enter Heaven because when he was alive, he was a greedy, miserly person, often hiding money, stingy, never giving anything to anyone. . But he couldn't go to Hell because he used to play with the devil when he was alive, so the devil didn't catch him.
The story goes that: one day a demon came to disturb a residential area, unfortunately being alarmed, people came to ask for help from the monks to bring holy objects to "cover" and "lock the doors" in and out. So the demon was caught… Jack realized that it was the demon that often played with him and Jack sought to remove the "devil's enchantment" to open the way for the demon to escape.
In return for saving his life, the devil promised Jack that he would not take Jack's soul to Hell. Therefore, when Jack died from an accident, Jack's soul was rejected by Heaven. Jack immediately went to Hell, but the devil didn't let him in… because of his previous promise. Seeing that Jack was cold and miserable, the devil took some embers from Hell, put in the intestines of a pumpkin, and gave them to Jack to warm up... on the way back to earth.
In order to let the air in to feed the fire, Jack had to puncture the pumpkin.. and the light from the fire shone from inside to illuminate Jack's wandering path. Maybe Jack must take the lamp to roam the earth until the last judgment day of mankind.
Where did Halloween come from?
Today's Halloween festival originates from the Celts, a people who lived more than 2,000 years ago in the lands of what is now England, Ireland and northern France.
Halloween came to America by the first immigrants, mostly from England and some from the Celtic regions, who brought many different customs to America. But for various reasons, it was not until the 1800s that it became a popular practice.
In the mid-19th century, the custom of "trick or treat" was not popular in large cities because in these places "neighbors" were almost nonexistent; Many people live together without knowing each other, so Halloween sometimes causes disastrous things. Today, many communities and organizations have sponsored the fun customs of Halloween, so it has become a very welcome festival for teenagers and some young people.
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