All right, so this picture doesn't embody the traditional Halloween "thingies" but it is kinda' spooky. It's downtown Budapest at night, and central Europe is still alive with storie of things that haunt the night.
With Halloween around the corner, I'd thought I'd look into the history of the spooky holiday.
Halloween has it's roots in an old Celtic harvest festival which took place at the end of the Celtic year called "Samhain." During this night it was believed that spirits returned to Earth to destroy the crops and play tricks on the living. Celtic Priests, known as Druids would sacrifice harvested crops to the gods to help keep these spirits away.
By the 800 AD, the Christian religion found the Celtic people. They brought "All Saint's Day," in an effort to exert their influence, thus "All Hallow's Eve" was born and was shortened to Halloween.
In the 1800's, the Irish immigrants brought Halloween with them to the US. It's through all these previous influences, that Halloween has grown into the holiday it is today.
A couple of interesting Halloween facts:
After Christmas, Halloween is the 2nd highest grossing retail holdiay in the US.
Harry Houduni died on Oct. 31, 1926. He was stabbed during a trick, I believe and didn't seek treatment for his injuries.
Samhainophobia is the name of the phobia for Halloween.
The Irish used to carve jack-o-lanterns out of turnips!
One quarter of the candy sold annually is for Halloween night.
Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/30/the-history-of-halloween_n_321021.html
Have a great Halloween. Anyone want to share what they want to be? I'm still looking for my costume. I want to wear a Star Trek the original series uniform. hehe. My boy Andrew is going to be the headless horseman and my son Joe is Wow Wow Wubzzy.
Smiles
Steph
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