Halloween

Hi everybody. Did you celebrate Halloween on October 31^st? Some of us did and we also tried to to know more about it. Here is what we found out.

The holiday originally comes from an ancient festival called Samhain. Pronounced “sow-in”, Samhain is a Gaelic word meaning “the end of summer”. This festival was not only a celebration of the end of the harvest but it also marked the Celtic new year. It was believed it was the day when the spirits of those who died came back and mingled with the living.

As Christianity spread , the Church tried to replace this pagan feast with official church holidays: in the 8^th century November 1^st became All Saints’Day and it was made universal throughout the western church in the XV century. The night before was All Hallows Eve or Halloween. Around the end of the first millennium 2^nd November was chosen to commemorate the dead and it became All Souls’ Day.

TRADITIONS

Throughout the centuries Halloween has become a complicated mix of traditions and influences.

In order to mine the return of the dead , young people dress up as ghosts, spirits , they wear grotesque masks and carve pumpkins lantern into deaths’ head: they are archetypal figures that act out the forces of the darkness and the Underworld. Whereas the association of witches with Halloween is due to the German tradition of Walpurgisnacht, the night of hobglobins and evil spirits.

In the past there was a tradition called “souling”: people went around houses asking for food and in exchange they promised to pray for the dead. People no longer go souling but the habit has been transformed into the game called “ Trick or Treat”: the masked people represent the spirit of the dead and to refuse them food means to invite their vengeance. Apple bobbing is another game played on Halloween. Apples are put in a large bowl of water and players have to take them using only their teeth while the hands must be behind the back.

The Irish and Scottish immigrants took their Celtic heritage to the USA and from there it spread all over the world under the pressure of American popular culture. The Halloween hype is now fully incorporated into the Italian culture. In our region, the Marche, the most important town celebrating Halloween is Corinaldo dubbed “ the Halloween capital of Italy”. The town celebrates every year with the Night of the Witches: music dancing, fireworks ( the Celts used to commemorate the starting of the new cycle with a sacred fire) and the Miss Witch competition. In the province of Macerata there is Mogliano: along its streets you will find ghosts, wizard, vampires and even a horror tunnel.

The following photos were taken in Mogliano

The two festivals feature food in unusual ways. For example in Sicily people eat “ossa dei morti”, almond paste candies and in our region at the end of October and the beginning of November bakeries display “fave dei morti” cookies in the shape of beans.