The origin of Halloween

More than 2000 years ago, the Christian Church in Europe designated November 1 as "All Hallows' day.". "Hallow" means saint. It is said that Celts living in Ireland, Scotland and other places moved the festival forward one day since 500 BC, that is, October 31. They think it's the official end of summer, the beginning of the new year and the beginning of a harsh winter. At that time, it was believed that the dead soul of the old man would return to his former place of residence on this day to seek living beings from living people, so as to regenerate, and this was the only hope that people could be reborn after death. On the other hand, the living people are afraid that the souls of the dead will seize life. Therefore, people put out the fire and candle light on this day, so that the souls of the dead can not find the living people, and dress up as ghosts and ghosts to scare away the souls of the dead. After that, they will light the fire and candle light again and start a new year's life.

Halloween is actually a celebration of autumn, just as may day is a celebration of spring. Priesthood of ancient Gaul, Britain, and Ireland; Druid had a grand festival celebrating autumn, which lasted from midnight on October 31 to November 1 the following day. They think that on that night, their great God of death, Saman, called all the ghosts of the people who died that year, and these evil spirits should be punished by raising themselves to animals. Of course, as long as you think of this kind of ghost gathering, it is enough to make those simple minded fools at that time scared. So they set up a bonfire and kept a close watch on the evil spirits. That's how the idea of witches and ghosts everywhere on Halloween begins. So far, in some isolated parts of Europe, there are still people who believe this is true.

The ancient Romans also had a festival on November 1st to pay homage to their goddess Pomona. They roasted nuts and apples in front of the big bonfire. Our Halloween seems to be a mixture of ancient Roman festivals and Druid festivals.

It turns out that the activities of Halloween are very simple, and most of them are held in the church. But throughout Europe, people see Halloween as an opportunity to have fun, tell ghost stories and scare each other. So people no longer use this festival to celebrate autumn, but let it become a festival of gods, witches and ghosts.