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Nowadays Halloween parties are celebrated in lot of countries and regions worldwide.  A large proportion of people who celebrate this festivity associated it only with an opportunity for real strenuous fun.  If you are one of them, only for a moment, think about what you really know about it.  We have prepared for you a brief summary to know more about Halloween.

Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is an annual celebration observed on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints’ Day.  This word, Halloween, is first attested in the 16th century. It represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even (“evening”) or the night before All Hallows Day. In the 20th century, the spelling “Hallowe’en” was frequently used, removing the “v” and shortening the word.

Its Celtic roots are associated with the festival of Samhain which celebrates the end of the “lighter half” of the year and beginning of the “darker half”.  The ancient Celts believed that the border between this world and the “otherworld” became thin during this time of the year, allowing spirits (both harmless and harmful) to pass through.  Then, their family’s ancestors were honoured and invited home while harmful spirits were warded off.  For that reason, this need to ward of harmful spirits made the people dress up wearing costumes and masks. Their aim was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid harm. But this period was also a time to take stock of food supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores.

During the 19^th century, dressing up in costumes and was frequent in Scotland and Ireland at Halloween celebrations.  However, this custom became popular for Halloween parties in the US at the beginning of the 20^th century.   Over time, the costume selection, traditionally modelled after monsters such as ghosts, skeletons, witches or devils, has extended to include: popular characters from fiction, celebrities, generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses, pop culture figures like presidents, athletes, celebrities or well-known cartoons characters.

Today Halloween encompass customs of medieval holy days as well as contemporary cultures.  For example, what about these well-known pumpkins for the Halloween parties?  Nowadays we can’t think in Halloween without pumpkins.  But as we explained you before, this celebration had its origins in UK and more specifically in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints’ Day.   In the traditional Celtic festivals, turnips or beetroots, instead of pumpkins, were hollowed out, carved with faces and placed in windows to ward off evil spirits. The practice of commemorating the souls in purgatory with candle lanterns carved from turnips or beetroots became adapted, years after, into the making of jack-o’-lanterns.  This tradition of carving pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America, just because there pumpkins are both readily available and much larger, making them easier to carve it. Therefore this is a typical American tradition.

We can easily find this connection, between Halloween in UK and US, in the 19^th century massive immigration process.  Scottish and Irish immigration brought Halloween customary to North America.  Then, these customs that arrived from across the Atlantic were fostered by Americans who were making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas.  This is how famous “Trick or Treat?” question emerged.  Scotland and Ireland had a strong tradition of “guising”.  That means Scottish and Irish children disguised in costumes going from door to door requesting food or coins. This practice dates back to the Middle Ages and includes Christmas wassailing when poor folk would go door to door on All Saints’ Day receiving food in return for prayers for the dead.

Basically for children “Trick-or-treating” play is a customary celebration. Children go in costume and masks from house to house, asking for treats such as candy with the question, “Trick or treat?”.

 Now you know more about this celebration and Halloween 2010 is almost here… what are you waiting for think about your Halloween costume, decorations and parties?   For this special occasion Rentspain.com has selected the better deals to rent a car for your next holidays in Spain.  If you are interested in, don’t hesitate to check our rental prices and take advantage of our low cost deals.    Tomorrow can be late.

 What a great Halloween we will all have this year!!