On October 31 in the USA and many other countries of the world, people celebrate Halloween – pumpkin decorations are made, parties are organized with masks, costumes, fireworks, young and old do funny tricks, tell scary stories and go around for treats.
The Halloween mood has conquered Bulgaria in recent years, despite the divergent opinions on the subject and the eternal opposition to Bulgarian holidays and traditions, writes dariknews.bg.
Halloween costumes usually copy those of supernatural figures such as monsters, ghosts, skeletons, witches and demons. Over time, costumes of popular characters from science fiction films, of famous personalities are also added to them, ninja and princess costumes are also very popular.
Interestingly, traditionally people in Ireland and Scotland carved turnips, thus remembering the souls held in purgatory. But immigrants to North America began to use the pumpkin, which is much larger and therefore more convenient to carve.
Black and orange are the traditional colors of the holiday. In addition to masking, this day also emphasizes the consumption of sweet cupcakes in the shape of creepy figures, as well as lots of candy.
The origin of the holiday is connected with the ancient Celts. They celebrated their New Year – Samhain at the end of October when they harvested their last harvest. They believed that on New Year's Eve, the border between the dead and the living opens and the shadows of those who died in the past year visit the earth, looking for living bodies to inhabit. To protect themselves from the shadows, people put out the fire in the hearths and tried to look as scary as possible - wearing animal skins and heads, hoping to scare away the apparitions. Food was left for the spirits to feed themselves and not insist on entering their home. And the inhabitants themselves gathered around fires that were kindled by the Druid priests. At these gatherings predictions were made for the winter and animals were sacrificed. At the end of the gathering, everyone took coal from the fire and lit their hearth with it.
In 853 AD. Pope Gregory IV confirmed October 31 as All Saints' Day, a day to celebrate all Christian saints and martyrs, which in countries with a large Celtic population naturally coincided and mixed with the traditionally existing pagan holiday.
According to legend, the Halloween pumpkin is connected to the story of a villager named Jack the Blacksmith or Tight Jack, and hence the pumpkin lantern is called a jack-o-lantern or Shining Jack.
A curious fact is that our fears are embedded in our DNA and are passed down from generation to generation as a survival mechanism. On Halloween, overcome your fears and try to scare more people.