FCS UB, Malang – We’ve all heard the word “Halloween”. As Indonesians, most of us generally recognize it while watching the Hollywood films. Did you know that Halloween originated as a ritual to ward off bad luck and is now celebrated as a holiday?
According to Nicholas Rogers’ book “Halloween from pagan ceremony to party night“, Halloween is derived from the Celtic tradition of Samhain (pronounced sow-in) which means summer celebration. Most of the Celts who lived 2,000 years ago in the area which is now called with Ireland, Great Britain, and Northern France, they celebrated their New Year on November 1.
The Celts believed that the boundary between the living and the dead was blurred on the eve of the New Year. They celebrate Samhain on October 31st. They believing that the spirits of the deceased return to earth. Aside from causing havoc and destroying crops, Celts believed that the presence of otherworldly spirits made easier for Druids or Celtic priests to make future predictions.
The Druids lit a big sacred bonfire as a commemoration to this event. People gathered around the campfire to burn animals and plants as sacrifices to the Celtic gods. During this event, Celtic people dressed up themselves with animal skin costumes. Then shared stories about their life with one another.
Source: history.com
They rekindled the bonfire that had been burnt on the next day, in order to help protect them during the coming winter. As quoted from the same book, “In fact, there is no hard evidence that Samhain was specifically devoted to the dead or to ancestor worship, despite claims to the contrary by some American folklorists, some of whom have presumed that the feast was devoted to Saman, god of the dead”.
From time to time, Halloween transforms into a fascinating festival. On Halloween night nowadays, you can go and do the trick-or-treating, carve jack-o-lanterns out of pumpkins, hang out with friends, dress up in unfamiliar costumes, and also eating out.
(FIBInternship)
References:
History.com Editors. (Ed.) (2009, November 18). Halloween 2021. A&E Television Networks. https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween
Rogers, Nicholas. (2002). Halloween from pagan ceremony to party night. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
