Halloween Informative Speech

Have you ever wondered anything about Halloween? Have you asked yourself about why in the actual times it is celebrated? or maybe what it meant when it was first celebrated? What it means and why it was celebrated in the first place? Even better, how does the Halloween celebrated in the actual times differ from the one celebrated at first? Halloween is a day celebrated on the night of October 31st, and its word (halloween) comes from the old and ancient expression “all hallows eve”.

Halloween´s timeline

Halloween, as an ancient feast has a history, from which its origin, and the nowadays tradition overlap and connect. Having this on mind, something to take into account is that a tradition is the passing down of elements of a culture from generation to generation , and in this case, celebration Halloween is a tradition, but as everything on Earth, it must evolve to satisfy the believes and behaviors of the people who practice it.

Origin.
There is a theory that says halloweens origin goes back to the ancient United Kingdom, Ireland and Scotland, where the people who lived there celebrated their New Year's Day on what would be November 1st on our calendar.
These people where said to believe in and practice a pagan religion controlled by a priest class known as Druids. During the day before the celebration of the New Year, these celtic people was a time to consider the mystery of human death. It was believed that on the last night of the year the lord of death, Samhain, allowed the souls of the dead to return to their homes. Souls that had died in sin, and in Celtic belief imprisoned in the bodies of animals, could be released through gifts to the lord of death, including human sacrifices. It was also thought that evil spirits, demons, ghosts, witches were also free to roam around this
night.

By that time, it was said that if people dressed up in the way these demons, witches, evil spirits in general looked, people would be left alone by these creatures. Additionally, a way to placate this spirits was believed to be celebrating a feast in sort of their honor. In that time, wildfires were also used, however not precisely to provide heat, they where ment to symbolize the driving away of darkness and evil with the coming of the new year. Finally, when the Romans conquered Gaul (France) and Britain (excluding Scotland and Ireland), some of the celtic believes were lost.

Actuality.

In the actual times, Halloween is celebrated having on mind the customs and traditions of the ancient England, however, the meanings that this act had on those times, are lost, and instead, nowadays Halloween is more like a feast for fun than for the dead. Todays society dresses up, however it is not to look like the evil spirits because in that way they would be left alone, but because of fun. In the same order of ideas, the wildfire is also represented by the Jack-o-lanterns, which are pumpkins carved with different faces. Finally, trick or treating is also an addition, which was gotten from a connection to the cristian religion, which had to do with something related to praying for the owner of the house in exchange of something. In this case, the track or treat is the “prayer”, and the candy is the promised reward.