Halloween at CEI and the history of this tradition

W We did have Halloween once again a tour school this year. The students from the 8th grade prepared many activities to carry out with the pupils from the primary school

Halloween is the one of the oldest holidays still celebrated today. Nowadays millions of people celebrate Halloween without knowing its origins and myths, the history and facts of Halloween. While the majority of people see the Halloween as a time for fun, putting on costumes, trick-or-treating, and having theme parties. Others view it as a time of superstitions, ghosts, goblins and evil spirits that should be avoided at all costs.

Halloween is celebrated on October 31st, the last day of the Celtic calendar. It was originally a pagan holiday, honoring the dead. Halloween was referred to as All Hallows Eve and dates back to over 2000 years ago. All Hallows Eve is the evening before All Saints Day, which was created by Christians to convert pagans, and is celebrated on November 1st. The Catholic church honored saints on this designated day.

Roots lay in the feast of “Samhain”, which was annually on October 31st to honor the dead. “Samhain” signifies "summers end" or November. Samhain was a harvest festival with huge sacred bonfires, marking the end of the Celtic year and beginning of a new one. Many of the practices involved in this celebration were fed on superstition.The Celts believed the souls of the dead roamed the streets and villages at night. Since not all spirits were thought to be friendly, gifts and treats were left out to pacify the evil and ensure next years crops would be plentiful. This custom evolved into “trick-or-treating”.

We did have Halloween once again a tour school this year. The students from the 8th grade prepared many activities to carry out with the pupils from the primary school.Firstly they presented some cultural and historial facts about this celabration, doing at the same games, singing songs and doing with them some craft work on the theme. Secondly outsider classes, in the playground they organized some typical Halloween games for them, such as “bobbing for apples”, “trick or treat game”, “spooky chocolate socks”,…

It was a fantastic afternoon where eveybody had a lot of fun… congratulations on all of them for their sense of responsability, sense of humour, happiness and HUGE SMILES! 😊

 

Teacher: Carla Monteiro