Halloween in Australia

In celebration of the fact that Halloween is almost upon us, and also because I LOVE Halloween, I thought I'd share with you all a little history on the origins of the celebration, courtesy of the History Channel,  and some artwork I've seen that is just awesome (Halloween inspired of course!).

Perhaps surprisingly to some, Halloween is not exclusively an American 'thing' or tradition. It actually has it's roots in Celtic origins. The ancient Celtic festival of Samhain involved people wearing costumes and lighting bonfires to ward off roaming ghosts. Living 2000 years ago, the Celts celebrated their new year on November 1, because this day was considered the end of the summer period and the start of the cold dark winter period that was associated with human death. They believed that the night before the New Year was when the boundaries between living and dead were blurred and the ghosts of the departed were able to roam the earth, damaging crops and causing problems. During their night of  celebration, the Druids wore animal skins as costumes, attempted to tell each other's fortunes, and made animal and crop sacrifices to the gods in their huge bonfires.

By the 9th Century Christianity had spread to the Celtic lands, and the church decreed November 2nd to be All Souls Day, which was a day to honour the dead. The day was celebrated in much the same fashion as the Celtic Samhain - dressing up in costumes like saints, angles and devils, with parades and bonfires. The day was called All-hallows, or All-hallowmas, and the night before began to be known as All-Hallows eve, eventually becoming Halloween.

Halloween did not become a tradition within America until the second half of the 19th Century when mainly Irish immigrants helped to make the celebration popular. Copying from the English and Irish, Americans began to dress up in costume and go house to house asking for food or money, in what would eventually become trick or treating. Over time, Halloween became more about community get togethers than about superstition and ghosts. The idea of giving local children candy came about in a combined effort of community involvement and to prevent tricks being played on themselves.

Many superstitions and beliefs have formed the celebration which is now called Halloween, and while some of them may now be a little commercial, I find Halloween to be far less so than Christmas. Halloween has become about dressing up, having fun, scaring each other and engaging with your local community by trick or treating. The kids love it, and it's really harmless fun. And all you have to do to prevent having a trick played on you is give out some lollies! I can't see the harm in that!!

Image courtesy of http://www.guildwars.com/events/contests/halloween2011/

http://radojavor.deviantart.com/art/Scarecrow-41286004

http://radojavor.deviantart.com/art/Scarecrow-41286004

http://chatterboxbydesign.wordpress.com/2011/10/19/halloween-part-2-decorations/

http://sharddot.blogspot.com.au/2010_10_03_archive.html

Oh! And did I mention how cool the decorating aspect is??? I just love the pumpkins and the scary props and I only wish that it was that time of year over here, instead of it being spring!