The Haunted History of Halloween on Shine: "Thursday, October 28, 2010
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by DameNation, on Wed Oct 27, 2010 11:21am PDT253 CommentsPost a CommentRead More from This Author »Report AbuseShare
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By Claudine Zap
Sunday is Halloween, and the frightfest has trick-or-treaters checking the Web for the history of the haunted holiday.
Lookups on 'what is the history of Halloween' rose 220% on Yahoo!. Spooky searches for 'the haunted history of Halloween' and 'the true history of Halloween' were also scary-high.
Turns out, the modern-day tradition of outfitting yourself in a costume and going door to door for candy has some really ancient roots.
Originally, the festival came from the Celtic holiday Samhain, which means summer's end, and celebrated the end of fall and the beginning of winter. This day also marked the Celts' version of the new year — and the time, they believed, when the dead came back to roam the earth. (Insert spooky music here.)
Ancestors were honored, but evil spirits were warded off by lighting bonfires and wearing costumes to hide from them. Turnips carved with faces got placed in windows to scare off the unwelcome undead. People would go 'a-souling,' and in exchange for food and drink, pray for a household's dead relatives. In Scotland, spirits were impersonated by men wearing all white with veiled faces. Sound familiar"
Thursday, October 28, 2010
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