萬聖節的英語閱讀材料
❶ 萬聖節英文內容
萬聖節英文內容
October 31即10月31日，就是西方的萬聖節前夕，下面我准備了一些萬聖節的`英語內容，歡迎大家閱讀欣賞!
【October 31——10月31日】
On October 31st, dozens of children dressed in costumes(節日服裝)knock on their neighbors’ doors and yell "Trick or Treat" when the door opens. Pirates and princesses, ghosts and popular heroes of the day all hold bags open to catch the candy or other goodies that the neighbors drop in.
As they give each child a treat the neighbors exclaim over the costumes and try to guess who is under the masks.
Since the 800’s November 1st is a religious holiday known as All Saints’ Day(萬聖節). The Mass that was said on this day was called Allhallowmas.
The evening before became known as All Hakkiw e’en, or Halloween. Like some other American celebrations, its origins lie in both pre-Christian and Christian customs.
October 31 st was the eve of the Celtic(凱爾特人的)new year. The Celts were the ancestors of the present-day Irish, Welsh and Scottish people. On this day ghosts walked and mingled with the living, or so the Celts thought.
The townspeople baked food all that day and when night fell they dressed up and tried to resemble the souls of the dead. Hoping that the ghosts would leave peacefully before midnight of the new year.
Much later, when Christianity spread throughout Ireland and October 31 was no longer the last day of the year, Halloween became a celebration mostly for children.
"Ghosts" went from door to door asking for treats, or else a trick would be played on the owners of the house. When millions of Irish people immigrated to the United States in the 1840s the tradition came with them.
Today’ school dances and neighborhood parties called "block parties" are popular among young and old alike. More and more alts celebrate Halloween. They dress up like historical or political figures and go to masquerade parties(化妝舞會).
In larger cities, costumed children and their parents gather at shopping malls early in the evening. Stores and businesses give parties with games and treats for the children.
Teenagers enjoy costume dances at their schools and the more outrageous the costume the better!
Certain pranks(惡作劇)such as soaping car windows and tipping over garbage cans are expected. But partying and pranks are not the only things that Halloweeners enjoy doing. Some collect money to buy food and medicine for needy children around the world.
【Symbols of Halloween】
Halloween originated as a celebration connected with evil spirits. Witches flying on broomsticks with black cats, ghosts, goblins(小精靈)and skeletons have all evolved as symbols of Halloween.
They are popular trick-or-treat costumes and decorations for greeting cards and windows. Black is one of the traditional Halloween colors, probably because Halloween festivals and traditions took place at night.
In the weeks before October 31, Americans decorate windows of houses and schools with silhouettes(輪廓)of witches and black cats.
Pumpkins are also a symbol of Halloween. The pumpkin is an orange-colored squash, and orange has become the other traditional Halloween color.
Carving pumpkins into jack- o’lanterns is a Halloween custom also dating back to Ireland. A legend grew up about a man named Jack who was so stingy(吝嗇的)that he was not allowed into heaven when he died, because he was a miser(吝嗇鬼).
He couldn’t enter hell either because he had played jokes on the devil. As a result, Jack had to walk the earth with his lantern until Judgement Day(審判日). The Irish people carved scary faces out of turnips(蕪菁根), beets(甜菜根)or potatoes representing "Jack of the Lantern," or Jack-o’lantern. When the Irish brought their customs to the United States, they carved faces on pumpkins because in the autumn they were more plentiful than turnips.
Today jack-o’-lanterns in the windows of a house on Halloween night let costumed children know that there are goodies(糖果)waiting if they knock and say "Trick or Treat!"
;❷ 萬聖節的英語作文素材
在平平淡淡的學習、工作、生活中，大家一定都接觸過作文吧，作文是從內部言語向外部言語的過渡，即從經過壓縮的簡要的、自己能明白的語言，向開展的、具有規范語法結構的、能為他人所理解的外部語言形式的.轉化。那麼你知道一篇好的作文該怎麼寫嗎？下面是我收集整理的關於萬聖節的英語作文素材，歡迎大家分享。
On October 31st, dozens of children dressed in costumes(節日服裝)knock on their neighbors』 doors and yell "Trick or Treat" when the door opens. Pirates and princesses, ghosts and popular heroes of the day all hold bags open to catch the candy or other goodies that the neighbors drop in. As they give each child a treat the neighbors exclaim over the costumes and try to guess who is under the masks.
Since the 800』s November 1st is a religious holiday known as All Saints』 Day(萬聖節). The Mass that was said on this day was called Allhallowmas. The evening before became known as All Hakkiw e』en, or Halloween. Like some other American celebrations, its origins lie in both pre-Christian and Christian customs.
October 31 st was the eve of the Celtic(凱爾特人的)new year. The Celts were the ancestors of the present-day Irish, Welsh and Scottish people. On this day ghosts walked and mingled with the living, or so the Celts thought. The townspeople baked food all that day and when night fell they dressed up and tried to resemble the souls of the dead. Hoping that the ghosts would leave peacefully before midnight of the new year.
Much later, when Christianity spread throughout Ireland and October 31 was no longer the last day of the year, Halloween became a celebration mostly for children. "Ghosts" went from door to door asking for treats, or else a trick would be played on the owners of the house. When millions of Irish people immigrated to the United States in the 1840s the tradition came with them.
Today』 school dances and neighborhood parties called "block parties" are popular among young and old alike. More and more alts celebrate Halloween. They dress up like historical or political figures and go to mmasquerade parties(化妝舞會). In larger cities, costumed children and their parents gather at shopping malls early in the evening. Stores and businesses give parties with games and treats for the children.
Teenagers enjoy costume dances at their schools and the more outrageous the costume the better!
Certain pranks(惡作劇)such as soaping car windows and tipping over garbage cans are expected. But partying and pranks are not the only things that Halloweeners enjoy doing. Some collect money to buy food and medicine for needy children around the world.
Symbols of Halloween
Halloween originated as a celebration connected with evil spirits. Witches flying on broomsticks with black cats, ghosts, goblins(小精靈)and skeletons have all evolved as symbols of Halloween. They are popular trick-or-treat costumes and decorations for greeting cards and windows. Black is one of the traditional Halloween colors, probably because Halloween festivals and traditions took place at night. In the weeks before October 31, Americans decorate windows of houses and schools with silhouettes(輪廓)of witches and black cats.
Pumpkins are also a symbol of Halloween. The pumpkin is an orange-colored squash, and orange has bee the other traditional Halloween color. Carving pumpkins into jack- o』lanterns is a Halloween custom also dating back to Ireland. A legend grew up about a man named Jack who was so stingy(吝嗇的)that he was not allowed into heaven when he died, because he was a miser(吝嗇鬼). He couldn』t enter hell either because he had played jokes on the devil. As a result, Jack had to walk the earth with his lantern until Judgement Day(審判日). The Irish people carved scary faces out of turnips(蕪菁根), beets(甜菜根)or potatoes representing "Jack of the Lantern," or Jack-o』lantern. When the Irish brought their customs to the United States, they carved faces on pumpkins because in the autumn they were more plentiful than turnips. Today jack-o』-lanterns in the windows of a house on Halloween night let costumed children know that there are goodies(糖果)waiting if they knock and say "Trick or Treat!"
❸ 萬聖節英語短文章
呵呵……
昨天剛幫人翻譯了一篇，雖然看起來，不是很完整，你摘用吧！
What is Halloween?
Halloween might be the funniest and the most scary celebration of them all. The question is – what is Halloween anyway? Is it a night where we are supposed to worship ghosts or the dead of the earth or is it a Christian celebration that has turned into something weird?
Origin
The answer to the question is two-folded. First of all Halloween derives from the New Year celebration of the Celts. They called that night Samhain, Winter´s Eve. The Celts thought that the spirits of people who had died the past year would search for new bodies this particular night, the 31st of October. In order not to be possessed, people would make their own homes as uncomfortable as possible, by turning off the heat. At night, the Celts went on a parade, dressed in weird clothes. The aim was to frighten the souls of the dead.
All Saints Day
The day after Halloween, the 1st of November is the All Saints Day, an important holiday in the Christian church. It is also called All Hallows, a definition turned into Halloween. The church has never been in favor of the Celtic tradition of Halloween, and has tried to stop the celebrations by claming the the parades and the costumes to be evil. But that has not been that successful. Today Halloween is a secular holiday.
Today
The Celtic traditions has persisted the catholic criticism. The habit of Halloween got to America in the 1840:s by Irish immigrants. The tradition has since then grown into an international habit, and Halloween is today celebrated in all of the western countries. The costumes and the parading on the streets are still two of the main things about Halloween. The trick-or-treating is also a tradition that has become a part of the modern form of Halloween. That tradition comes from the Celtic habit of walking door-to-door in order to collect money and food for the parade.
什麼是萬聖夜？
或許萬聖夜是眾多節日里最有趣、最嚇人的一個了。可問題是，到底萬聖夜是什麼？是一個我們來朝拜幽靈或
者亡靈的夜晚嗎？還是一個由原本基督節慶演變而來的什麼怪東西？
淵源
這個問題的答案有二。首先，萬聖夜起源於蓋爾特人的新年慶祝活動。他們把新年的那天夜晚叫做薩溫節
（Samhain），意思是冬季來臨的前夕。蓋爾特人相信，在10月31日的晚上，去年死去親友的亡魂會回來，尋
找替死鬼。為了不被附身，人們會關掉暖氣，使家裡盡可能的冷（讓亡魂找不到活人）。當夜晚來臨時，
所有蓋爾特人身著怪異而又可怕的服飾，出門遊行，希望能嚇走亡靈。
萬聖節
11月1日，萬聖夜翌日，即為「聖徒之日」，是基督教中非常重要的一個節日。這一天又被稱作：萬聖日，這也是萬聖夜的來源。教堂從來沒有認可蓋爾特人萬聖夜的傳統，也曾試圖將遊行和這種穿著看作異端，但是卻沒有成功。而今，萬聖夜變成一個人人都慶祝的節日。
今天
蓋爾特人的傳統經受住了天主教的批判，於1840年間被愛爾蘭移民者傳到美國。從那以後，萬聖夜逐漸演變為
一個國際性的慶祝節日，大多數西方國家都會慶祝這一天。上街遊行和著裝怪異仍然是萬聖夜最主要的兩大特
色。「不給糖就搗亂」，來自於蓋爾特人為支持遊行、挨家挨戶的收集錢財和食物的活動，成為了如今萬聖夜的一部分。
❹ 有關萬聖節的英語文章
Halloween is always celebrated on 31 October.
Halloween is one of the oldest celebrations in the world, dating back over 2000 years to the time of the Celts who lived in Britain
Halloween is also know by other names:
All Hallows Eve
Samhain
All Hallowtide
The Feast of the Dead
The Day of the Dead
Halloween in Welsh is 'Nos Calan Gaeaf'.
Halloween is correctly spelt as Hallowe』en.
When Christianity came to England and the rest of Europe,November became All Saints Day - a day dedicated to all those saints who didn't have a special day of their own. They performed a mass called 'All hallows mass' and the night before became known as All Hallows E'en and eventually Hallowe』en or Halloween.
When the Romans conquered England, they merged Samhain with their own festivals, a harvest festival called Poloma, and a celebration for the dead called Feralia.
In Mexico, they celebrate El Dia de los Muertos or the Day of the Dead starting the evening of October 31.
It is thought that the colours orange and black became Halloween colours because orange is associated with harvests (Halloween marks the end of harvest) and black is associated with death.
Black cats were originally believed to protect witches' powers from negative forces.
A pumpkin is really a squash, and comes from the same family as the cucumber.
About 99% of pumpkins sold are used as Jack O' Lanterns at Halloween.
The biggest pumpkin in the world tipped the scales at a whopping 1,446 pounds. This gigantic gourd was weighed in October 2004 at a pumpkin festival in Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada.
The record for the fastest pumpkin carver in the world is Jerry Ayers of Baltimore, Ohio. He carved a pumpkin in just 37 seconds!
The very first jack o' lantern was made out of hollowed out turnips.
Ringing a bell scares evil spirits away.
If you see a spider on this night, it could be the spirit of a dead loved one who is watching you.
To meet a witch, put your clothes on inside out and walk backwards on Halloween night.
Top Tips for Halloween
If your pumpkin lanternshrivels up, you can restore it by soaking it overnight in water to re hydrateit.
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Halloween
October 31st (western countries)Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins going back thousands of years.
The holiday has had many influences from many cultures over the centuries. From the Roman's Pomona Day, to the Celtic festival of Samhain,to the Christian holidays of All Saints and All Souls Days. Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts (凱爾特人), who worshipped nature and had many gods, with the sun god as their favorite. They celebrated their New Year on November 1st which was made every year with a festival and marked the end of the "season of the sun" and the beginning of "the season of darkness and cold. "On October 31st after the crops were all harvested and stored for the long winter the cooking fires in the homes would be extinguished. The Druids, the Celtic priests, would meet in the hilltop in the dark oak forest (oak trees were considered sacred). They would light new fires and offer sacrifices of crops and animals. As they
danced around the fires, the season of the sun passed and the season of darkness would begin. When the morning arrived the Druids would give an ember from their fires to each family who would then take them home to start new cooking fires. These fires would keep the homes warm and free from evil spirits.The November 1st festival was called Samhain pronounced "sow-en"). The festival would last for 3 days. Many people would parade in costumes made from the skins and heads of their animals. This festival would become the first Halloween.
The Celtics would carry a lantern when they walked on the eve of October 31. These lanterns were carved out of big turnips (大頭菜) and the lights were believed to keep the evil spirits away. Children would carve faces in the turnips. These carved turnips were called "jack-o-lanterns. It is said that the jack-o-lantern" got its name from a stingy and mean old man, named Jack, who when he died was too mean to get into heaven. When Jack went to hell he was meet by the Devil who gave him a piece of burning coal and sent him away. Jack placed the burning coal in a turnip to use as a lantern to light his way. The legends claim that Jack is still walking with the lantern looking for a place to stay.When the early settlers came to America they found the big round orange pumpkin. Being larger and much more colorful than turnips, the pumpkin made great "jack-o-lanterns". Eventually the pumpkin would replace the turnip. Eventually the Pumpkin would become the most widely recognized symbol of the Halloween holiday. The history of "Trick'O'Treating" can be traced back to the early celebrations of All Soul's Day in Britain. The poor would go begging and the housewives would give them special treats called "soulcakes". This was called "going a-souling", and the "soulers" would promise to say a prayer for the dead.Over time the custom changed and the town's children became the beggars. As they went from house to house they would be given apples, buns (圓形的小甜麵包), and money. During the Pioneer days of the American West, the housewives would give the children candy to keep from being tricked. The children would shout "Trick or Treat!".
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HALLOWEEN One story about Jack, an Irishman, who was not allowed into Heaven because he was stingy with his money. So he was sent to hell. But down there he played tricks on the Devil (Satan), so he was kicked out of Hell and made to walk the earth forever carrying a lantern. Well, Irish children made Jack's lanterns on October 31st from a large potato or turnip, hollowed out with the sides having holes and lit by little candles inside. And Irish children would carry them as they went from house to house begging for food for the village Halloween festival that honored the Druid god Muck Olla. The Irish name for these lanterns was "Jack with the lantern" or "Jack of the lantern," abbreviated as " Jack-o'-lantern" and now spelled "jack-o-lantern." The traditional Halloween you can read about in most books was just children's fun night. Halloween celebrations would start in October in every elementary school. Children would make Halloween decorations, all kinds of orange-paper jack-o-lanterns. And from black paper you'd cut "scary" designs ---an evil witch with a pointed hat riding through the sky on a broomstick, maybe with black bats flying across the moon, and that meant bad luck. And of course black cats for more bad luck. Sometimes a black cat would ride away into the sky on the back of the witch's broom. And on Halloween night we'd dress up in Mom or Dad's old shoes and clothes, put on a mask, and be ready to go outside. The little kids (children younger than we were) had to go with their mothers, but we older ones went together to neighbors' houses, ringing their doorbell and yelling, "Trick or treat!" meaning, "Give us a treat (something to eat) or we'll play a trick on you!" The people inside were supposed to come to the door and comment on our costumes. Oh! here's a ghost. Oh, there's a witch. Oh, here's an old lady. Sometimes they would play along with us and pretend to be scared by some ghost or witch. But they would always have some candy and maybe an apple to put in our "trick or treat bags." But what if no one come to the door, or if someone chased us away? Then we'd play a trick on them, usually taking a piece of soap and make marks on their windows. .And afterwards we would go home and count who got the most candy. One popular teen-agers' Halloween trick was to unroll a roll of toilet paper and throw it high into a tree again and again until the tree was all wrapped in the white paper. The paper would often stay in the tree for weeks until a heavy snow or rain washed it off. No real harm done, but it made a big mess of both the tree and the yard under it. One kind of Halloween mischief.
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Halloween is an observance celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most common in the United States, Puerto Rico, Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and with increasing popularity in Australia and New Zealand. Halloween originated in Ireland as the pagan Celtic harvest festival, Samhain. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.
The term Halloween, and its older spelling Hallowe'en, is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the evening before "All Hallows Day"[1] (also known as "All Saints' Day"). In Ireland, the name was All Hallows Eve and this name is still used by some older people. Halloween was also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries and given a Christian interpretation. In Mexico November 1st and 2nd are celebrated as the "Dia de Los Muertos" Day of the Dead. Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the pú, a mischievous spirit. In Australia it is sometimes referred to as "mischief night", by locals.
Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the liminal times of the year when the spiritual world can make contact with the physical world and when magic is most potent (e.g. Catalan mythology about witches).
Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?
The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended ring this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.
Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.
Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.
The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.
❺ 萬聖節的英語小短文【十萬火急！】
（1）實用英語作文-萬聖節
Halloween
Halloween is an autumn holiday that Americans celebrate every year. It means "holy evening," and it comes every October 31, the evening before All Saints' Day. However, it is not really a church holiday, it is a holiday for children mainly.
Every autumn, when the vegetables are ready to eat, children pick large orange pumpkins. Then they cut faces in the pumpkins and put a burning candle inside. It looks as if there were a person looking out of the pumpkin! These lights are called jack-o'-lanterns, which means "Jack of the lantern".
The children also put on strange masks and frightening costumes every Halloween. Some children paint their faces to look like monsters. Then they carry boxes or bags from house to house. Every time they come to a new house, they say,"Trick or treat! Money or eat!" The grown-ups put treat-money or candy in their bags.
Not only children, but most grown-ups also love Halloween and Halloween parties because on this day,they can disguise themselves as personages or ghost as their imaginations will lead them. This bring them the satisfaction of being young.
萬聖節前夕
萬聖節前夕是美國人年年都會慶祝的秋季節日。它的意思是「神聖的夜晚」，在每年的10月31日，也就是萬聖節前夜。但實際上這不是一個真正的宗教節日，而主要是孩子們的節日。
每年秋天蔬菜成熟可以食用的時候，孩子們就會挑出大個兒的橙色南瓜。然後在南瓜上刻上一張臉，把一根點燃的蠟燭放在裡面。看起來就好像有人在向南瓜外面張望。這些燈就叫做「iack-o'-lantems」，意思也就是「傑克的燈」。
每年萬聖節前夕孩子們還戴上奇怪的面具，穿上嚇人的服裝。有些孩子把臉刷成怪物。然後他們拿著盒子或袋子挨家挨戶串門。每來到一個新房子他們就說：「不款待就搗亂!給錢還是吃的!」大人們就會把用來招待的錢或糖放在他們的袋子里了。
不僅孩子，許多成年人也喜歡萬聖節前夕和萬聖節前夕晚會。因為這一天他們可以根據自己的想像把自己裝扮成名流或幽靈。這會帶給他們年輕的快感。
（2） 英語—萬聖節
Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?
The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended ring this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.
Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.
Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.
The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack's lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.
（3）萬聖節
Next to Christmas, Halloween is the most commercialized celebration in the United States and Canada. This ancient festival originated far from North America however, and centuries before the first European set foot on the continent.
The ancient Druids who inhabited what we now call Great Britain placed great importance on the passing of one season to the next, holding "Fire Festivals" which were celebrated for three days (two days on either side of the day itself).
One of these festivals was called Samhain (pronounced Sha-Von) and it took place on October 31 through to November 1. During this period, it was believed that the boundaries between our world and the world of the dead were weakened, allowing spirits of the recently dead to cross over and possess the living.
In order to make themselves and their homes less inviting to these wayward spirits, the ancient Celts would douse all their fires. There was also a secondary purpose to this, after extinguishing all their fires, they would re-light them from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning at Usinach, in the Middle of Ireland.
Samhain was considered to be a gateway not only from the land of the dead to the land of the living, but also between Summer and Fall/Winter. For the Druids, this was the last gasp of summer (it was also the Celtic New Year), so therefore they made sure it went out with a bang before they had to button down for the winter ahead.
They would dress up in bizarre costumes and parade through their villages causing destruction in order to scare off any recently departed souls who might be prowling for bodies to inhabit, in addition to burning animals and other offerings to the Druidic deities. It is also a popular belief that they would burn people who they believed to be possessed, but this has largely been debunked as myth.
This yearly festival was adopted by the Roman invaders, who helped to propagate it throughout the rest of the world (and at that time, the Roman Empire was the world). The word "Halloween" itself actually comes from a contraction of All Hallows Eve, or All Saint's Day (November 1), which is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints.
This tradition was later brought to the North American continent by Irish immigrants who were escaping the Potato Famine in their homeland. In addition to the festival itself, the immigrants brought several customs with them, including one of the symbols most commonly associated with Halloween -- the Jack 'O Lantern.
According to Irish folklore, there once lived a man named Jack who was known for being a drunk and a prankster. One night Jack tricked the devil into climbing a tree, and quickly carved an image of a cross on the trunk, trapping the devil. Jack then made him promise that, in exchange for letting him out of the tree, the Devil would never tempt him to sin again. He reluctantly agreed, but was able to exact his revenge upon Jack's death. Because of his mischievous ways in life, Jack was barred from entering heaven and because of his earlier trick, he was also barred from hell. So he was doomed to wander the earth until the end of time, with only a single ember (carried in a hollowed out turnip. to warm him and light his way.
In Ireland, they originally also used turnips for their "Jack Lanterns", but upon arriving in the new world, they discovered that pumpkins were abundant and easier to carve out.
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