Halloween

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Halloween
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What is Halloween?
Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of
October 31st. On this night, children dress up in
different costumes and go door to door asking for
candies (also known as trick or treating). Other
activities that also take part in this custom are
bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunting
houses, playing pranks on one another, watching
horror films and other Halloween related
festivals. Pumpkins are carved out for Halloween
with faces and homes are decorated with ghostly
and other evil images.
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Evolution of Halloween

• The first Halloween event dates back to
  pre-Christian Ireland and Scotland to a
  celebration of the Druids or Celtic priests.
• The Celtic year began on November 1st with a
  festival called Samhain. The ancient priests
  believed that on the evening, Samhain, the lord
  of the dead, called forth host of evil spirits.
• On the eve of Samhain, October 31st, laughing
  bands of young people disguised themselves in
  monstrous masks and carved lanterns and carried
  them through the villages. This festival came to
  be known as the festival of the dead
• The druids believes that it was this on this
  night when earth came into the closest contact
  with the spirit world and consequently ghosts,
  goblins, witches and all created havoc and
  destruction (killing farm animals and destroying
  crops)
• According to the belief, while spirits of the
  dead roamed around, villagers lighted bonfires to
  either drive them away or to guide the spirits of
  the dead back to their homes

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Second Event

• The second event to Halloween dates back to the
  Dark ages in Europe
• The Christian Church destroyed many of the
  temples of various Greek deities
• However, this pagan worship was never completely
  eradicated and later took on the form of
  witchcraft.
• One of the most important aspects of witchcraft
  is a number of celebrations called Witches
  Sabbaths. The highest celebration of this is
  called Black Sabbath of Witches or the High
  Sabbath on October 31st
• Things such as cauldrons, broomsticks and black
  cats came from this event

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The Third Event

• The third event dates backs to early Roman
  Catholic Church
• The church had appointed days to honour each of
  the saints and basically ran out of days in the
  year. So they decided to remember all the saints
  on All Saints Day
• This took place on November 1st and was called
  All-hallowmas or All-hallows
• The night before this, October 31st came to be
  known as All-hallows Eve or Holly Eve, and
  eventually Halloween

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Jack-o'-lantern
Customs!

• This was a legend associated with an Irish man,
  Jack who supposedly enjoyed playing pranks on the
  Devil

• The legend states that after his death, Jack did
  not go to Heaven or Hell and therefore, had to
  wonder the earth carrying a lantern, providing
  him with some light to see where he was going

• Pumpkins that were hollowed out and had candles
  lit inside were symbolic of this legend

• On top of that, these pumpkins were also used to
  scare evil spirits away (that is why odd looking
  faces are carved in the pumpkins)

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Trick-or-Treating

• In Ireland, it was believed spirits thronged
  about the houses of the living, they were thus
  greeted with a banquet
• At the end of the feast, villagers disguised
  themselves as souls of the dead and paraded to
  the outskirts of their villages in order to lead
  the spirits away.
• This believed to avoid any calamities the dead
  might bring. Another way the villagers tried to
  appease the dead was set out bowls of fruit and
  other treats so the spirits would partake of them
  and leave them in peace
• Later when the belief in ghosts and goblins
  declined, youths dressed themselves as ghosts and
  such as threatened to play tricks on those who
  failed to be generous with treats

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Bats Black Cats

• These animals were believed to communicated with
  the dead
• It is also believed black cats were able to house
  the souls of witches

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Interesting Facts!

• Survey conducted by BIGresearch found that an
  estimated 3.29 billion was spent on this holiday
  in 2005

• Candy sales for Halloween in the year 2005 made a
  profit of 2.1 billion (1 million immunizes more
  than 58,000 children for life against the top 6
  child-killer diseases)

• Average consumer planned on spending 48.48 on
  merchandise. A total of 18.07 was spent on
  sweets (40.00 can provide blankets for ten
  children to protect them from the cold and 15
  provides two long-lasting insecticidal mosquito
  nets, protecting families from malaria which
  kills an African child every 30 second)

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Islamic Stance

• We have sent them the truth, but they indeed
  practice falsehood (Quran 2310)
• You must keep to my Sunnah and the Sunnah of the
  Rightly Guided Caliphs cling to it firmly.
  Beware of newly invented matters, for every new
  matter is an innovation, and every innovation is
  misleading (Bukhari)
• The final hour will not come until my followers
  copy the deeds of the previous nations and follow
  them very closely, span by span, and cubit by
  cubit (Bukhari)
• Whoever imitates a nation one of them (Abu
  Dawud)

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Sunnah
It was the Sunnah of the Prophet (saw) to differ
from the non-Muslims, particularly in those
matters that were specific to non-Muslims. In
Sunan Abi Dawud, Anas ibn Malik says that when
the Prophet (saw) came to Medinah, there used to
be two festivals in which the people engaged in
playing sports. So the Prophet (saw) asked, "What
are these two days?," they replied, "We used to
play sports during these in the jahiliyah (time
period before Islam)." The Prophet (saw) then
said, "Verily Allah has given you two better
days, the Day of Adha and the Day of Fitr."
This not only shows that the Prophet (saw) did
not acknowledge the non-Muslim's days, but also
demonstrates that Allah has dignified the Muslims
with days which are pleasing to Him and superior
in merit. Indeed, the glorious Companions
understood this principle and applied its ruling
with the fullest extent. For example, Abdullah
ibn 'Umar said, "One who settles in the lands of
the non-Muslims, celebrates their New Year's
Days, and behaves like them until he dies, will
be raised with them on the Day of Resurrection."
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Conclusion
Islam propagates the idea of conscious living,
and upon the advent of Islam, it served to
cleanse ignorant and superstitious practices.
Muslims have been ordered to work for a
purposeful, beneficial cause for mankind.
Indulging in prehistoric and ignorant practices
can only lead to frittering away ones life and
thus making one an ultimate loser in the Hereafter