Transcript Diapositiva 1

•
Halloween, celebrated each year
on October 31, is a mix of ancient
Celtic practices, Catholic and
Roman religious rituals and
European folk traditions that
blended together over time to
create the holiday we know today.
Straddling the line between fall
and winter, plenty and paucity
and life and death, Halloween is a
time of celebration and
superstition. Halloween has long
been thought of as a day when
the dead can return to the earth,
and ancient Celts would light
bonfires and wear costumes to
ward off these roaming ghosts.
• The Celtic holiday of Samhain, the Catholic Hallowmas period of
All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day and the Roman festival of
Feralia all influenced the modern holiday of Halloween. In the
19th century, Halloween began to lose its religious connotation,
becoming a more secular community-based children's holiday.
Although the superstitions and beliefs surrounding Halloween
may have evolved over the years, as the days grow shorter and
the nights get colder, people can still look forward to parades,
costumes and sweet treats to usher in the winter season.
•
The American Halloween tradition
of "trick-or-treating" probably dates
back to the early All Souls' Day
parades in England. During the
festivities, poor citizens would beg
for food and families would give
them pastries called "soul cakes"
in return for their promise to pray
for the family's dead relatives.
•
The distribution of soul cakes was
encouraged by the church as a way
to replace the ancient practice of
leaving food and wine for roaming
spirits. The practice, which was
referred to as "going a-souling"
was eventually taken up by
children who would visit the
houses in their neighborhood and
be given ale, food, and money.
• Today's Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more
fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and
superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing
paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us
bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages,
when many people believed that witches avoided
detection by turning themselves into cats. We try not
to walk under ladders for the same reason.
•
According to the story,
Stingy Jack invited the Devil
to have a drink with him. True
to his name, Stingy Jack
didn't want to pay for his
drink, so he convinced the
Devil to turn himself into a
coin that Jack could use to
buy their drinks. Once the
Devil did so, Jack decided to
keep the money and put it
into his pocket next to a
silver cross, which prevented
the Devil from changing back
into his original form. Jack
eventually freed the Devil,
under the condition that he
would not bother Jack for
one year and that, should
Jack die, he would not claim
his soul. The next year, Jack
again tricked the Devil into
climbing into a tree to pick a
piece of fruit. While he was
up in the tree, Jack carved a
sign of the cross into the
tree's bark so that the Devil
could not come down until
the Devil promised Jack not
to bother him for ten more
years.
TRABAJO REALIZADO POR:
• Ana Rocío Pareja Sánchez
• Jessica Sánchez Osete
• Pablo Avilés Cano
• Antonio Jose Bermudez Larrosa
2º de bachillerato