HALLOWEEN PRESENTATION

the history of

Halloween!

by teacher Ileana

samhain

It was an ancient Celtic festival, celebrated on 31st October. It was the end of summer and the harvest season, and the beginning of a new year, with darker and colder days.

the celts

The Celts were from Europe, in what is now Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Cornwall, Galicia (Spain) and Bretagne (France)

In Samhain, the Celts believed that this world and the magical world merged, and ghosts and fairies could be around. The spirits helped druids to predict the future, and they built huge sacred bonfires, where people in costumes burned crops and animals as sacrifice.

roman empire

Romans invaded and ruled Celtic lands for 400 years, and their traditions merged. They also had festivities in late october: Feralia (to commemorate the dead), and another to honour Pomona, their goddess of fruit and trees (her symbol is the apple).

In the 8th century, Pope Gregory III designated 1st November as All Saints Day. This celebration incorporated many traditions of Samhain: parades, big bonfires, and dressing up as saints, angels and devils.The eve of All Hallows (saints) became "Halloween". It was (and is) a day of trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, parties and wearing costumes.

Fortune telling traditions:-games with apples, like throwing the peel to the ground, which shows the initial of your sweetheart. -baking "barmbrack", with symbolic charms inside

apples

Symbolic objects are added to the bread mix, each with a fortune-telling significance:Coin=money Pea=no marriage soon Thimble=no marriage ever Stick=dispute/unhappy relation Cloth=poverty Religious medal=you'll be a nun or priest

barmbrack

summary