Halloween History

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Halloween History

• Where did it come from?

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• Halloween is a 2000-year-old New Years Eve
  tradition

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• Celebrated by Celts from Ireland, Great Britain,
  France as their most important holiday of the
  year

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• Halloween Today
• Amalgamation

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• 1. Celtic New Years
• 2. Divinations
• a. Ducking for apples marriage
• b. Peeling apples longevity
• 3. Day to remember the dead

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• 4. Catholic traditions
• a. 11/1 Memory of martyrs
• b. 11/2 Prayer for souls in purgatory

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• Memory of martyrs (saints) on 11/1 All Saints
  Day or All Hallows Days, therefore All Hallows
  Eve Halloween

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• 4. Dressing in masks and costumes was associated
  with the poor going door-to-door providing
  entertainment in return for food and drink

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• 5. Irish and Scottish immigrants to U.S. in late
  1800s brought over Mischief Night Trick of
  Halloween

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• Tricks became increasingly nasty into the 1920s
  with destruction of property, cruelty to animals
  people, and terrorism by KKK reached its peak

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• Boy Scouts and other groups organized safe and
  fun alternatives to vandalism one involved
  going door-to-door to receive treats and
  thereby keeping troublemakers away ergo trick
  or treat emerged by the late 1930s

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• 6. Jack-O-Lantern legend from Ireland in about
  18th century (not associated with a specific day)

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• Legend of Jack tricking the devil, but not
  gaining access to heaven when he died, so he
  roams the earth with a turnip with a live coal in
  it to light his way

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• 7. There is no historic connection to the devil
  or evil spirits, but this has been added in the
  last 50 years