Happy Halloween: Süßes, sonst gibt's Saures! [29.10.22]
Spooky season is upon us, which means Halloween is right around the corner! How much do you know about this ghostly holiday?
What is Halloween about?
Halloween is a holiday that is observed on October 31 and this year, Halloween falls on a Monday. This holiday is one of the oldest customs in existence, touching on a fundamental aspect of the human condition – the interaction between the living and the dead. Halloween has metamorphosized into a major holiday in current times, with its origination from ancient ceremonies commemorating the change from summer to winter.
Every society that has ever existed has developed some kind of ceremonial observance centered around what happens to individuals after they die, where they go, and how the living should best respect the dead and deal with those who don't appear to want to (or can't) go on. Today, Halloween is observed in many ways across the world, from China's Tomb Sweeping Day to Mexico's Day of the Dead. Even while certain features of Halloween are relatively new additions, the current commemoration of Halloween in nations like the United States and Canada, where it is most often observed, is rooted in ancient history. In Germany, Halloween is comparable to Carnival or Fasching, however, Fasching takes place at the end of winter to drive away winter and the associated bad spirits.
Halloween has long been a mysterious, magical, and superstitious occasion. It started as a Celtic end-of-summer event when people felt particularly connected to their departed loved ones. They burned lights to aid loved ones in returning to the spirit realm, put gifts on doorsteps and by the side of the road, and set places at the dinner table for these spirits. Additionally, this holiday marked the start of a new year. However, today, Halloween is generally not connected to any one religion or tradition and is instead seen as a secular community holiday that caters primarily to children.
Some of the well-established Halloween customs include carving pumpkins, trick-or-treating, and dressing up in costumes. The ancient Celtic festival of Samhain was a pagan religious celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of summer. During this time, people would celebrate with horse races, markets, dances, dinners, bonfires, and dress up in costumes to fend off ghosts. Pope Gregory III established November 1 as a day to celebrate saints in the ninth century. Soon later, All Saints Day began to adopt elements of Samhain's customs. All Hallows Eve and subsequently Halloween were the names given to the evening preceding All Saints Day. Here’s a look at some of the origins and customs of Halloween.
Ancient origins - Samhain
Halloween's roots are found in the historic Samhain celebration. On November 1, the Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in a region that is today mostly Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France, celebrated the beginning of their new year. The celebration, whose name translates as "summer's end", signaled the end of the harvest and the approach of winter. With the end of the harvest season and the start of winter, the coldest and darkest time of the year began, which for the Celts meant danger. The Celts thought that the dead may return and retrace their steps at this time because they felt the gap between the living and the dead was the narrowest. During Samhain, no laws of nature applied, i.e., dead people could walk the earth and living people could visit the underworld; similar was believed by other pagans. Also, other spirits could more easily come into this world and at Samhain, they were appeased with offerings of food and drink, so that people and their livestock survived the winter. The souls of dead family members were also thought to visit their homes, and a place was set at the table for them during a meal. The Celts feared being dragged into the world of the dead by ghosts during this time and thus disguised themselves as gruesome creatures as a deterrent. The idea that ghosts visit the world of the living is reflected in the Halloween we know today, as well as the custom of dressing up spooky.
Because the Church Christianized Samhain, as it did with many pagan holidays, very little is known about its ceremonies. What little is known comes from Irish monks who wrote down their people's pre-Christian history as well as other Christian writers. From these writings, it appears that the celebration also involved gathering food for the winter, butchering cattle, gathering for feasts, and burning the bones in "bone fires" that eventually became known as bonfires. It is uncertain how long ago these rites were a part of Samhain celebrations, although it is likely that they existed in some form by the time Christianity arrived in Ireland in the fifth century.
It was the Church itself that kept the Samhain custom alive in the West by Christianizing it in the ninth century, paving the way for it to develop into a worldwide secular celebration that has grown to be the most well-liked and financially successful of the year, second only to Christmas. Among neopagans, Wiccans, and other spiritual groups, Samhain, and the belief that during this night the boundaries between living and dead are blurred, is still celebrated.
Ancient origins - All Saints’ Day
By the ninth century, Christianity's influence had reached the Celtic nations, where it progressively assimilated with and replaced pre-Christian Celtic practices. The church designated November 2 as All Souls' Day in 1000 A.D. as a day to remember the deceased. Like Samhain, All Souls’ Day was observed with large bonfires and parades, where people dressed up as saints, angels, and demons. This holiday, also known as All Saints' Day (likewise known as All-Hallows or All-Hallowmas - from the Middle English word all-holowmesse, which means All Saints' Day), and the night before it, Samhain, started to be termed All-Hallows Eve and then, finally, Halloween.
Religious roots – Reformation Day
On October 31st, protestant Christians celebrate Reformation Day in memory of Martin Luther, who in 1517 proposed 95 theses to a church in order to reform the Catholic Church. Reformation Day is treated as a public holiday in Brandenburg, Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and Thuringina in Germany. This custom was adopted by the church, which combined the feast with the two following memorial days for the dead All Saints (Allerheiligen) on November 1st, and All Souls (Allerseelen) on November 2nd. All Saints' Day, on the other hand, is a Catholic holiday celebrated in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Saarland.
Trick or treating
The origins of trick-or-treating are hotly contested, although there are commonly three explanations. According to the first belief, Celtic people used to put food out on Samhain to please the nighttime spirits that walked the Earth. People eventually started dressing up like these otherworldly creatures in exchange for similar gifts of food and wine.
The second explanation postulates a secular variation of "souling" that was practiced in Scotland. In exchange for prayers for the deceased on All Souls' Day, youngsters and impoverished adults would collect money and “soul cakes” (square pastry filled with currants) from nearby households throughout the Middle Ages. The church promoted the distribution of soul cakes as a replacement for the traditional custom of placing food and wine out for wandering souls. Children eventually adopted the custom of "going a-souling", when they would visit the homes in their area and receive ale, food, and money. The prayers were later abandoned in favor of nonreligious rituals that included music, jokes, and other "tricks". In Germany, we also say “Süßes, sonst gibts Saures”, which loosely translates to "give something sweet or get tricked".
A third hypothesis contends that "belsnickeling," a German American Christmas custom in which kids would dress up and visit their neighbors to see if the adults could identify who they were, is where contemporary trick-or-treating originated in the United States. If no one could identify the youngsters, they were given food or other rewards.
Trick or treating in America
In the late 1800s, there was a movement in America to change Halloween from a celebration of ghosts, tricks, and witchcraft to one that was more about neighborhood and community gatherings. Halloween parties with games, seasonal delicacies, and festive attire were the most popular way to commemorate the holiday around the turn of the century.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had evolved into a secular but neighborhood-focused celebration, with parades and Halloween parties serving as the main attractions. Vandalism started to affect some events in many areas at this time, despite the best efforts of many schools and towns.
By the 1950s, local officials had successfully reduced vandalism, and Halloween had changed into a celebration mostly for kids. The birth boom of the 1950s produced a large number of small children, thus celebrations migrated from town municipal buildings to classrooms and homes where they could be accommodated more readily.
Trick-or-treating, a centuries-old custom, was resurrected between 1920 and 1950. Trick-or-treating was a reasonably cheap method for an entire neighborhood to participate in the Halloween holiday. Families may theoretically stop pranks from being played on them by giving the neighborhood kids little presents, hence the term “trick or treat”.
A fresh American custom was therefore established, and it has since flourished. Americans now spend an estimated $6 billion on Halloween each year.
Costumes
In Celtic custom, people used ashes from the bonfires to darken their faces in an attempt to fool the spirits that walked the earth during Samhain (a method that became known as "guising"). From this, masks evolved. These “masks” shielded people from the unwelcome attention of evil powers.
Additionally, people used to fear leaving their houses on Halloween since it was considered that ghosts returned to the physical world at that time. People would wear masks when they left their houses after dark so that the ghosts would believe them to be other ghosts to escape being identified by these ghosts.
In the same way that people wore masks centuries ago to ward off undesirable spirits and experiences while looking forward to happy reunions with loved ones, individuals now dress up to reflect their fears and wishes. Many of the costumes depict the common fear of death and the unknown, which, for one night at least, is conquered by dressing up as what one would typically fear and, in so doing, neutralizing that fear. Halloween is, or may be, a celebration of the triumph of hope over fear at its most fundamental level, which is probably also what Samhain meant to the ancient Celts thousands of years ago.
Pumpkin carving
The tradition of carving jack-o-lanterns is said to be based on an Irish folktale about a named Stingy Jack, who was denied entry into heaven as well as hell, leaving him to live out the rest of his days wandering as a ghost on Earth. In a turnip that had been hollowed out, the Devil handed Jack a blazing coal to light his path. To scare away bad spirits, locals soon started carving gruesome faces onto their own turnips. In southern Germany, Rübengeister (fodder beets) were traditionally used instead of pumpkins
Black cats
Black cats were seen as a representation of the Devil throughout the Middle Ages, which is when the notion of being frightened by them first emerged. The fact that "witches" were frequently discovered to have cats, especially black ones, years later didn't help. Black cats and spookiness have been associated since people started to think of them as witches' "familiars"—supernatural beings that would aid in the practice of dark magic.
Bats
The first Halloween celebrations were probably attended by bats, both physically and figuratively. Large bonfires were lit by the Celts in celebration of Samhain, which drew insects and also bats. Because of this, bats soon started to be associated with the celebration. A variety of superstitions based on the idea that bats were signposts of doom added to the eerieness of bats in medieval folklore.
Halloween colors - orange and black
The origins of the typical Halloween hues of black and orange may be found in the Celtic holiday of Samhain as well. Orange stood in for the fall harvest season while black indicated the "death" of summer.
Events this year
· Halloween Party at SI Center Admission approx. 30 €
· Sensapolis Böblingen/Sindelfingen admission approx. 20€
· Halloween Party in the Europapark Rust
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