The customs of Halloween
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"(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 púca, 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 during 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.
译文：
万圣节是纪念庆祝10月31日晚，尤其是在服饰打扮儿童和挨家挨户上门收集糖果。这是在庆祝西方世界很多，不过大多数在美国，波多黎各，爱尔兰共和国的共同，英国，加拿大，以及增加在澳大利亚和新西兰的知名度。万圣节起源于爱尔兰作为异教徒的凯尔特人丰年祭，Samhain。爱尔兰，苏格兰和其他移民带来的传统旧版本北美在19世纪。大多数其他西方国家接受，作为美国流行文化在20世纪后期的一部分万圣节。
万圣节一词，其旧拼写万圣节，是由原来的全空洞的，甚至，因为这是前天晚上“万圣节日”(也称为“万圣节”)。在爱尔兰，这个名字是万圣节前夕，这个名字仍然是一些老年人使用。万圣节，有时也被称为万圣节前夜。这个节日是一个宗教节日当天在各个北欧异教传统，直到它拨基督教传教士和基督教给予解释。在墨西哥11月1日和2日是著名的“直径德洛杉矶穆埃”死亡之日。万圣节之夜也称为Pooky大概在命名后，普爱尔兰，一个顽皮的精神部分。在澳大利亚，有时称为“恶作剧之夜”，由当地人。
万圣节，有时候是因为神秘。许多欧洲的文化传统认为，万圣节是一年中阈限的时代精神时，其中一个世界上可以与现实世界接触，当是最强大的魔法(例如关于女巫加泰罗尼亚神话)。
万圣节是一个一年一度的庆祝活动，但到底什么才是真正的庆祝活动?又是如何这一特殊习俗起源的?难道，像一些人所说，是恶魔崇拜呢?或者它仅仅是一些古老的异教仪式无害的痕迹?
这个词本身，“万圣节”，实际上是在天主教会的起源。它来自一个万圣节前夕承包腐败。 11月1日，“所有空心日”(或“万圣节”)，是一种荣誉的纪念天主教圣徒一天。但是，在公元前5世纪，爱尔兰的凯尔特人，10月31日正式结束夏季。这个节日被称为Samhain(播种恩)，凯尔特新年。
一个故事说，在这一天，所有那些谁在整个前一年去世会来的活体搜索返回的游魂拥有下一年度。这被认为是他们对来世的唯一希望。凯尔特人相信所有空间和时间的法律在此期间暂停，让世界的精神与生活混为一谈。 当然，仍然生活不想被占有。所以在10月31日晚，村民们扑灭大火家园，使他们感冒，并不可取。然后，他们将打扮成各种残忍的方式，大肆服装居民区周围的游行，被视为破坏尽可能以吓跑寻找精神的机构拥有。
可能是更好的解释为什么凯尔特人熄灭的大火并没有阻止神附体，但至今所有的凯尔特部落可能重新点燃一个共同的源头，从他们的火灾，火灾的Druidic被关在爱尔兰中燃烧，在Usinach。
一些帐户告诉凯尔特人如何将燃烧在谁被认为已经拥有的股份的人，作为一个教训排序的精神。凯尔特人历史上的其他帐户揭穿这些故事的神话。
罗马人通过作为自己的凯尔特做法。但在公元一世纪，Samhain是到其他古罗马的传统，采取了一些他们在10日举行，兑现波莫纳一些庆祝吸收，水果和树木罗马女神。在波莫那象征是苹果，这可能解释我们对万圣节的苹果漂泊的现代传统的起源。
在还随时间变化的做法，重点更加仪式。正如精神信仰藏减弱，衣像妖怪，鬼魂的实践，和女巫仪式上的作用更加了。
万圣节的习俗被带到美国在1840年的逃离自己国家的爱尔兰马铃薯饥荒的移民。当时，在新英格兰最喜欢的恶作剧包括在外屋小费和unhinging栅栏门。
定制的伎俩或善待被认为具有起源与爱尔兰凯尔特人，而是与第九世纪欧洲习惯称为souling。 11月2日，追思节，早期基督徒，走着，村与村的“灵魂蛋糕，”乞讨由与葡萄干面包片方出。月饼越灵魂会得到的乞丐，更祈祷他们承诺说对捐助者对死者的亲属代表。当时，有人认为，死者留在冰封了死后的时间，而祈祷甚至陌生人，可加速灵魂的通道天堂。
该南瓜灯笼习俗可能是由来自爱尔兰的民间传说。由于故事被告知，名叫Jack，谁被认为是酒鬼和骗子臭名昭著的一个男人，欺骗，爬树撒旦。杰克则刻一个在树的树干交叉形象，捕获魔鬼了树。杰克在与魔鬼，如果他决不会再诱使他达成协议，他会答应让他失望的树。
根据民间故事，杰克去世后，他被拒绝进入天堂，因为他的罪恶行径，但他也拒绝进入地狱，因为他骗了魔鬼。相反，魔鬼给了他一个单一的余烬点燃通过寒冷黑暗的路上。在余烬放在里面一镂空的萝卜，以保持发光时间。 用萝卜爱尔兰作为他们的“杰克的灯笼”原本。但是，当移民来到美国时，他们发现南瓜是远远超过萝卜丰富。因此，南瓜灯笼是在美国一镂空的南瓜，用余烬点燃。
因此，尽管有些邪教可能采用为他们最喜爱的“节日万圣节，”这一天本身却没有增加邪恶的作法。它的前身是在庆祝新年凯尔特人仪式，并指出欧洲中世纪的祈祷仪式。今天，甚至很多教会万圣节南瓜雕刻政党或为孩子们的活动。毕竟，这一天本身是邪恶的，只是作为一个关心使。