Unless you’re in a movie called Final Destination, because then bad things come for you really slowly. You then panic and end up dying a very weird death.
For this blog post I’d like to focus on an American traditional holiday called Halloween. It’s today by the way – 31 October. There are many reasons why people believe the tradition of Halloween started. Apparently, in old folklore tradition the Festival of the Dead is linked to the Festival of Samhain. Samhain, which means summer’s end, falls on the most important of the four quarter days in the medieval Irish calendar as people used this time to stock up for the cold winter months ahead. There was a sense that in this time, the supernatural and physical worlds was the closest and magical things could happen at this time. To ward off these spirits, the Irish built huge, symbolically regenerative bonfires and invoked the help of the gods through animal and perhaps even human sacrifice.
Halloween is also thought to have been heavily influenced by the Christian holy days of All Saints' Day (also known as Hallowmas, All Hallows, Hallowtide) and All Souls' Day. Falling on November 1st (My Birthday by the way) and 2nd respectively, collectively they were a time for honoring the Saints and praying for the recently departed who had yet to reach heaven.
South African have recently embraced this holiday, most probably because it’s been made so popular by American’s. I think South Africans have even more scary things to worry about than fake skeletons though. Maybe give some food instead of sweets away tonight.
It will be that much sweeter.
Fully support the idea to give food instead of sweets.
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