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HALLOWEEN? What's your cry

Thanks to the site www.irlandando.it discover and try to understand the festival of Halloween.

The name Halloween (Hallow E'en in Irish) comes from the contraction of All Hallows', where Hallow is the archaic English word meaning Holy Eve of All Saints, then. All Saints, however, English is All Hallows' Day The importance, however, is on the run can be deduced from the value of the Celtic cosmology: This conception of time, even if only formally and linguistically speaking, is very present in Anglophone countries, where several festivals are accompanied by the words "Eve", including the same New Year's Eve, New Year's Eve, or Christmas Eve "Christmas Eve".

The Celts were mainly a pastoral people, unlike other European cultures, such as those of Mediterranean basin. The rhythms of their lives were, therefore, marked the time that the breeding of livestock required, at different times from those fields. At the end of the summer season, the shepherds reported their flocks to the valley to prepare for the arrival of winter and early next year. For the Celts, in fact, not the new year began on 1 January as for us today, but on 1 November, when the hot season officially ended and began the season of darkness and cold, as long as you shut at home for several months, sheltering from the cold, building tools and spending their evenings telling stories and legends. The transition from summer to winter and from the old to the new year was celebrated with long celebrations, the Samhain (pronounced sow-in, where they sow rhymes with cow), which derives from the Gaelic samhuinn and means "summer's end", end of summer. In Ireland the festival was known as Samhein, or La Samon, the Feast of the Sun, but the concept is the same. In that time of year the fruits of the fields (not being the main activity of the Celts, however, were grown) were insured, the cattle had been well fed fresh air and mountain pastures and stocks for the winter were prepared. The community, therefore, could rest and thank the gods for their generosity. This was done through the Samhain, which also served to exorcise the arrival winter and its dangers, uniting and strengthening the community through a rite of passage that brought about the benevolence of the gods. The importance attributed to the Celtic Samhain population resides in their conception of time, seen as a circle divided into cycles: the end of each cycle was considered very important and full of magic. Along with Samhain (Oct. 31, in fact) were celebrated Lughnasadh (August 1st), Beltaine (May 1), Imbolc (Feb. 1), Yule (21 June), Ostara (September 22), Litha (December 22) and Mabon (21 March).

The advent of Christianity has not completely erased these holidays, but in many cases overlapped to them by giving them content and meaning than the original ones.

Death was the main theme of the festival, in line with what was happening in nature during the winter, life seems to be silent, when in fact renewed underground, where traditionally, among other things, the rest dead. From here you can understand the juxtaposition of Samhain to the cult of the dead. The Celts believed that on the eve of each new year, ie October 31, Samhain summoned all the spirits of the dead, who lived in a land of eternal youth and happiness called Tir nan Oge, and that the forces of spirits could join the living world, thus causing the dissolution of the temporary laws of time and space and ensuring that the afterlife is merged with the world of the living and allowing the wandering spirits to roam undisturbed on Earth. Samhain was therefore a celebration that united the fear of death and spirits to joy of the celebrations for the end of the old year. During the night of Oct. 31 rallies were held in the woods and hills to the ignition of the sacred fire ceremony and animal sacrifices were made. Dressed in grotesque masks, the Celts returned to the village, under the light with lanterns made of onions, cut inside which were placed the embers of the sacred fire. After these rituals, the Celts celebrated for three days, disguised with skin the animals killed to frighten the spirits.

Ireland spread the custom of lighting torches and torches outside the doors and leave food and milk for the souls of the dead who have paid a visit to their families, so that they could refresh themselves and elect not to make jokes to the living .

Through the Roman conquests, Christians and Celts came into contact. The evangelization of the British Isles brought with it a new concept of life, far from Celtic during which time the Church tried to eradicate the pagan cults, but not always succeed. Halloween was not completely erased, but was somewhat Christianized, through the establishment of All Saints Day on 1 November and, later, of All Souls' Day Nov. 2. It was Odilon of Cluny in 998 AD, to give the start to what would have been a new and long-lived tradition of Western societies. Then he gave orders that the monasteries the Abbey employees celebrate the rite of the dead from the evening of November 1. The next day was instead ordered that was commemorated with a Eucharistic celebration offered to the Lord, pro omnium defunctorum rest. A practice that soon spread throughout Christian Europe, to arrive in Rome later. The Feast of All Saints, in fact, was celebrated for the first time in Rome on 13 May 609 AD at the consecration of the Pantheon to the Virgin Mary. Later, Pope Gregory III decreed that the Feast of All Saints' Day was celebrated on May 13 but not more, but on 1 November, as some time in France. It was about the ninth century AD, the Feast of All Saints was officially institutionalized, and then extended to the whole Church, by Pope Gregory IV. With the exception of Orthodox Christians, who in keeping with the first celebrations, still celebrate All Saints Day in the spring, the Sunday after Pentecost. The influence of the cult of Samhain was not, however, eradicated and for this reason the Church said in the tenth century, a new holiday: November 2, All Souls' Day, dedicated to memory of the souls of the missing.

the mid-nineteenth century, Ireland was hit by a terrible famine, still remembered with great participation by the Irish. At that time, to escape poverty, many people decided to leave the island and to try luck in the United States, where they set, like many other nationalities, a strong community. Inside it were kept alive the traditions and customs of their homeland, and among them was celebrated Halloween on Oct. 31.

Soon, this practice spread to all Americans, almost becoming a national holiday. More recently, the United States by cinema and television have exported worldwide celebrations of Halloween, infecting that part of Europe which had remained apart. In many films and television often portray the famous pumpkin and masked children who knock on doors. And many, finally, are the books and horror stories that take Halloween as background or as a starting point of their plots.

To celebrate Halloween I choose these two spots.
Michelle Obama dressed as a catwoman for Halloween at the White House, always too far ... (Www.repubblica.it)

... and a bit 'of rules for newcomers to the party (www.internazionale.it)

1. Celebrate Halloween out of the American continent is a choice on the edge of good taste.
2. If you send your child to ask for candy from neighbors, before doing a tour of the building to distribute.
3. Halloween Carnival is not: let it be the Playboy bunny costume and dressed as a witch old and ugly.
4. When a child insists on having a carved pumpkin, you should tell him that then eat the pumpkin risotto for a week.
5. Do not waste energy to row against Halloween, remember that the real enemy is always and only Valentine.