What is Halloween?
Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of All Hallows' Evening), also known as Allhalloween,All Hallows' Eve,or All Saints' Eve,is a celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day.
The popularity of Halloween is growing exponentially. Americans spend over $5 billion dollars annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.
History behind Halloween
The origin of the festival is disputed, and there are both pagan and Christian practices that have evolved into what Halloween is like today. Some believe it originates from the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain, meaning 'Summer's End which celebrated the end of harvest season.
HALLOWEEN COMES TO AMERICA
Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
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