Happy Halloween

Almost 2000 years ago, there lived a group of people, knows as ‘CELTS’. They used to celebrate their ‘new year’ at the end of every harvesting season - on 31st October (31st October marked the end of summer and arrival of winter). The festival was known as ‘Samhain’ – named after the lord of death and darkness.  Celts associated winter with death.  They believed on the night of 31st October, the veil between the two worlds (the world of living and the dead) is very thin and the dead returns to our world on this night. Animal sacrifice, fortune telling and wearing the animal hides and horns were part of the tradition. Over the years and under the influence of roman rule and then Christianity- the festival of ‘Samhain’, eventually got modified into Halloween.

It is still believed that on Halloween, the souls of the dead return to this earth.





Bram Stoker took inspiration from the life of ‘Vlad the impaler’ while writing one of the most famous fictional characters of all time – the ‘Count Dracula’. 

Comments

  1. Unknown31 October 2014 at 10:34

    I wasn't aware of this fact, about how Halloween came up. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown31 October 2014 at 10:37

      Most of us are unaware since Halloween was never part of Indian or Asian culture and only after globalization and such expansion of media we came to know about it.

      Delete

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