A big happy birthday shout out to my wonderful sister Candace. I love you so much! I looked up a little "Halloween" history on the web. Here is some that I found for those interested:
"Around 2,000 years ago, the Celts, who lived in what is now the United Kingdom, Ireland, and northern France, had a festival commemorating the end of the year. Their New Year was November 1, and this festival was called Samhain, pronounced sow-en. The end of their year signaled the end of summer, the end of the harvest season, and the beginning of a long, hard winter that often caused many deaths of animals and people. Weaker livestock were often killed and eaten during this holiday, since most likely, they would not survive the winter anyway. Because of this, and the cruel winter to come, this time of year signified death to the Pagan Celtics. They believed the night before the New Year, that the wall between the living and the dead was open, allowing spirits of the dead, both good and bad, to mingle among the living. Some of these spirits were thought to possess living people, cause trouble, ruin crops, or to search for passage to the afterlife." (http://www.halloween-history.org/)
When the Roman Catholics came along, they were not too happy such Pagan traditions; so they declared November 1, to be All Saints Day, "also known as All Hallows, or All Hallowmas (Hallowmas is Old English for All Saints Day)". Therefore October 31st was 'Hallows Eve' which gave way to the term Halloween. They were hoping to discourage the Pagan tradition by placing a Christian holiday so close to it. Didn't work too well I'd say. I am grateful to my parents who did not read too far into such things as Halloween. I enjoyed it as a kid and want my children to do the same. I don't feel any less Christian because of it. I do enjoy the history and learning about other cultures and beliefs.
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