HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 IT'S THAT TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!  IT'S HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!


you may have noticed that i am writing in orange ink today. this is to signify the coming of halloween! yep, it's coming up and I am HAPPY! halloween is one of my favorite holidays! it is filled with many wonderful activities like


Carving pumpkins        

bobbing for apples 

Dressing up   





....Which goes hand in hand with trick-or-treating!  

And, of course, many other fun activities! 


Everyone loves halloween (including Charlie Brown) but no one really knows it's  origins.  I would like take this opportunity  to write about them!
















Halloween has it's roots in a Celtic festival called Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints day. Today it is a secular holiday, obviously.  Samhain translates roughly to summer's end.  A festival not unlike it was held by ancient Britons, and it was called Calan Gaeaf . What a cool name. It's so much fun to say! Go ahead, say it a few times. You know you want to! Calan Gaeaf  Calan Gaeaf  Calan Gaeaf. hahaha. that was fun.
anyway,  the festival Samhain celebrates the "darker half" of the year, sometimes regarded as the Celtic new year!
           The Celts believed that on Samhain, the border between the world that we know and the mysterious other world of ghosts and spirits thinned, allowing these ghosts and spirits to come in. Ooooooooooooh, spooky! The Celts also thought that while this meant that the spirits of ancestors would cross over to our world, it also meant that evil and harmful spirits would  follow them!
     And so lost relatives and ancestors were welcomed, and harmful spirits were warded off.  How did they ward off these harmful spirits? COSTUMES AND MASKS! this is where our modern tradition of dressing up in costumes comes.  In Scotland young men would even disguise themselves as the evil spirit to avoid harm. pretty crafty.    
    other festivities during Samhain included bonfires and divination.
          
Even the name Halloween has roots. Halloween is the contracted form of                        All Hallows Eve.   Gosh, Halloween is absolute history!
Eeek. Better try and push that thought out of my brain.


        
     there is TONS of symbolism in Halloween! Like Jack'o lanterns:  The souling practice of commemorating the souls in purgatory with candle lanterns carved out of turnips ( eeeeeeewwwww) has become  our modern practice of carving pumpkins! I can see why the changed from turnips to pumpkins: pumpkins are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy cooler than turnips!


As cool as the history of Halloween is, I sure am glad for the traditions we have today. I am greatly looking forward to trick or treating! i'm going as an alien. I love the scary stories, the folklore, the TV specials, the Ouija boards,  the preparation and decorations! It's all so much fun! I have been reading and learning about some interesting spooky activities! Here are some you might be interested in:


1. divination games: there are tons of stuff you can do to learn about the future. One game is where you take a long apple peel and throw it over your shoulder. supposedly the apple peel will take the shape of the first letter of your future spouses name. this is traditionally done in Scotland.
  Another cool divination experiment: legends say that if a girl looks into her mirror on halloween night in a dark room, she will see the face of her future husband.
  There are several divination activities to do (mostly with food)!
  
2. Ouija Board: Great for asking questions about the future and contacting spirits, just make sure you'r careful about blessing the house or whatever precautions are recommended. You wouldn't want to bring in any evil spirits! I'm serious.

3. ROCKY HORROR SHOW: Great to go see if you're old enough ( some adult themes)

4. Pulling pranks: Don't be afraid to freak people out!
5." Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board": Wanna make your friends levitate? get three people. have one person lay down, and the other two stand on either side of that person. Everyone closes their eyes, and chants " light as a feather, stiff as a board " keep you eyes closed, and WHAMMO! levitation. look it up if you want more information.



I hope you enjoyed reading my post! It was fun to write! Now go out and have fun! threaten the neighbors with eggs and toilet paper, and gorge yourselves on candy, and frighten your younger siblings to the point where they need a change of pants! 
And most of all............Happy Halloween!!!!!!
your blog writer,
Avigail