HAPPY HALLOWEEN PEOPLE!!!
One of the tasks we have to do for next week is giving our opinion about this famous American holiday, which in the last few years has become quite popular here as well. There are different points of view about Halloween: young people seem to love it and they celebrate it, while "traditionalists" are basically against it as they say it does not belong to our culture and history.Who is right? Good question...
On the one hand, it is true that Halloween never existed here until the end of the 90's (when I was a child I did not even know what it was); on the other hand, I like it because ghosts, spooks and vampires have always fascinated me :-)
Since I am in Group K, I am supposed to pretend to be totally against it during the debate which is going to take place in class on Monday. Before starting to think about some good clues to defend this point of view, here are a couple of details about Halloween’s origins and history:
"Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.
During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-Hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas."
"Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in).
The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.
During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. In the course of the four hundred years that they ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain.
By the 800s, the influence of Christianity had spread into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. It is widely believed today that the pope was attempting to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-Hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween. Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls', were called Hallowmas."
(taken from http://www.history.com/minisites/halloween/)
As you can read in the extract, Halloween takes its origins from a Celtic festival, which has absolutely nothing to do with our traditions. So, why should we celebrate it? Moreover, today Halloween is a North-American holiday more than a European one…We import a lot of things from the States: clothes, food, technologies, movies…Is it now necessary to import their holidays as well?? It sounds quite nonsense. There are lots of festivals around the world we do not care about…And many people in the world do not care about ours! If we celebrate Halloween, why do we not celebrate St.Patrick’s day, either??? I do not think we should import Halloween to Italy just because it comes from America! This holiday would lose all its meaning here because we do not consider it an important part of our culture...It would be just fashion or a sad result of the globalization process.
PS: That is not exactly what I really think about Halloween…Actually, I dressed up as a witch yesterday! ;-) In spite of this, there is some truth in what I wrote before. Well OK, we will discuss it on Monday, I hope this post will give us some useful cues anyway :-)
See you soon!
PS: That is not exactly what I really think about Halloween…Actually, I dressed up as a witch yesterday! ;-) In spite of this, there is some truth in what I wrote before. Well OK, we will discuss it on Monday, I hope this post will give us some useful cues anyway :-)
See you soon!
1 commento:
Hi Eleonora!
I was supposed to write AGAINST Halloween being imported to Italy too but actually...ehm ehm...on Wednesday I dressed up as a witch too and my boyfriend as “the warder of the cemetery”…we weren’t exactly a well-matched pair (why should a witch fell in love with the warder of the cemetery? That’s weird!)…anyway, we really enjoyed our Halloween party…I personally celebrate Halloween since I was a child even though I’m aware of the fact that it’s none of our festival!
Hence, there’s some truth in what you wrote: the whole thing is becoming a business (just think about how many gadgets as well as costumes have been sold in these days) and probably St. Patrick’s Day won’t have the same commercial success…Yes, it’s true…despite the fact that I celebrate Halloween every year it is totally nonsense…anyway…I’m looking forward to seeing what our fellows think about it!
See you on Monday (tomorrow! :-))
Love
Alessia
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