Tuesday, October 27, 2009

This is Halloween!!

Halloween
Halloween is nowadays known as a night (typically 31st of October), when children wear scary costumes such as witches, zombies, ghosts and vampires.
They go from house to house, knock on the doors, with the messagetrick or treat.
This comes from a threat to ask for candy, “give me a treat, or I will play a trick on you”.
This holiday is celebrated in various countries all over the world: Canada, New Zealand, U.K., Japan, Bahamas, United States, Australia, Scandinavia and many Latin American coutries where its known as “Noche de las Brujas”(night of the witches).
Originally, Halloween has its roots from Christian Missionaries, and the Day was called “All Hallows Eve”, which was the night before the Holiday of “All Saints holy day”.
This day was used by the Christian Missionaries to convert Pagan people into christianity.


Jack O' Lantern
During Halloween, it is very popular to decorate your frontyard with a carved pumpkin, which you personalize with a face and put a light inside it.This pumpkin is known as
Jack-O’-Lantern, which has its origin in an old Irish legend. Old Jack was a stingy man and when he died he couldn’t enter heaven because of all his bad actions. So, he carved a turnip and put a burning coal into it, making a kind of lantern to use to find a place to rest in the darkness. Since this time, Irish children carved turnips to scare away witches.
But, when Irish people moved to America, instead of turnips, the children carved pumpkins and put a candle inside to remember the story of bad old Jack and the lantern.

E.J.L