Halloween

María Charity Katherine Betancourt Gallego

Grade 9-4

• Halloween, also known as Day Night witches or witch, is a Celtic festival held on the evening of October 31, particularly in English-speaking countries such as Canada, USA, Ireland and the UK and to a lesser extent in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru or Latin America overall, and in much of Spain. Despite being truly speaking countries, in Australia and New Zealand is not seen as much as in other countries.

A little history:

• The history of Halloween goes back more than 2,500 years ago when the Celtic year ended at the end of the summer , on the day 31 October in our calendar. Cattle were the meadows led to the stables for the winter. That last day , it was assumed that the spirits could come out of the graveyard and take over the bodies of the living to resurrect . To avoid this, the Celtic villages littered houses and " decorated " with bones, skulls and other nasty stuff , so spend long dead scared. Hence the tradition of decorating houses with sinister motives in the current eve of All Saints and also costumes .

Halloween in Colombia

• In Colombia there are other more tradition and more than 30 years ago that began to popularize the party. It is said that the film was John Carpenter's "Halloween," which this festival gained popularity among Colombians. Some very religious Colombians think this satanic holiday and offensive but many enjoy going to parties dressed. But there is an unwritten rule about costumes: you should not hide your face or alter your appearance too since the transformation can scare others who might mistake you for a crook.

Halloween in United States

• In the United States, Halloween is lived intensely. Because of the large number of films that have been set on this date, have become very popular worldwide customs of this country to celebrate this holiday.

Halloween is a holiday that is usually celebrated with friends or family. In some parts of the country, including events that bring the whole community are organized. However, in general, the celebrations vary according to the age of people.

Traditions and symbols

Really the origin of pumpkins were turnips, which were emptied to introduce an ember inside it, and light the way to the spirits who came to earth that night and so find their way home to their families and neighbors.

The pumpkin

If the cat was considered a symbol of divinity among the Egyptians, Celts, however, developed a particular fear of this mythical animal, they believed that black cats were feline way that some demonic power had become a person, ie people cats were damn.

The black cats

Symbol of darkness. Sorcerers use sound to scare this animal according to them, the powers of darkness. They have their image as a good luck charm.

The owl

It was one of the plagues sent by God on the Egyptian people, because they considered sacred and worshiped.

The toad

• At the time of the Druids demons were represented by this figure. Then you know all the Dracula mythology and chupacuellos.

The vampires

• Used in occult practices, witchcraft, magic and symbols adopted by the "new age" according to them we are in the era of "aquarium" (astrology, belief in the stars).

Half moon and stars

• The children and those who are not so disguised, while competing with each other to see which is the most horrific of all disguise, and go from house to house giving the famous ultimatum "trick or treat"

Trick or treat

• Another deeply rooted in Halloween is to order and eat sweets. Apparently the tradition began in Europe in the ninth century when, every November 2 (All Souls Day), Christians went from village to village begging for "soul cakes" which were pieces of sweet bread. The more "soul cakes" received more promised to pray for the peace of the dead relatives of those who gave them such alms. Over time this custom was merging with the Halloween party to become another typical feature of the celebration.

The sweets

The costumes