Weekly Theme: Audio Books…Halloween
Sunday, November 5th, 2006Halloween is celebrated on 31 October and is associated with witches, pumpkins, spooks, ghouls, monsters, vampires, ghosts, the occult, werewolves and haunted houses. The older spelling of Hallowe’en is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the eve before All Hallows’ DoorDay, also known as All Saints’ Day. During Halloween, children dress up in costumes and go door-to-door collecting sweets otherwise known as “trick or treatingâ€. It is usually celebrated in the United Kingdom, Ireland, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Pumpkin carving, or jack o’lanterns is a popular part of the modern Halloween celebration.
Halloween’s origins date back to the ancient 2,000 year-old pagan Celtic festival of Samhain in Ireland, Britain and France. The Celts celebrated their new year on 1 November and this indicated the beginning of the long, dark, cold winter and the ending of the summer harvest. Samhain, which was celebrated on the night of 31 October, was the night the ghosts or other spirits returned to earth as the Celts believed that this was the time of the year when the spiritual world can make contact with the physical world.
To honour the event, the Celtic priests, or Druids wore costumes of animals and built sacred bonfires to sacrifice crops and animals. The Druids felt that this helped to protect them during the coming winter and it was easier to make prophecies about the future when magic was at its most powerful.
Most of the Celtic territories were then conquered by the Romans who celebrated their Roman festivals (Feralia and Pomona) with the traditional Samhain festival. With the advent of Christianity, Pope Boniface IV attempted to replace the festival of the dead with a related church-sanctioned holiday in the 7th century. Therefore, 1 November was designated as All Saints’ Day, a time to pay tribute to saints and martyrs. The church also encouraged the distribution of soul cakes to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.
To commemorate Halloween on 31 October, here are some books for children and a live performance CD from Jerry Seinfeld specially selected for you. Enjoy being spooked!
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