Welcome party-people to our special episode, Matt here and today´s topic is the creepiest
time of the year: Haalloweeeeen!
The date of Halloween – 31th of October – marks the line between fall and winter,
life and death, making party and the walk of shame...
But moreover, it is the time for superstition!
It is also the time of candies, costumes – the sexy ones – ohhh man look at her!
Hui… - but also the scary ones!
And last but not least the pumpkin…
AH COME ON, not that one! maaan, these guys scare really the shit out of me…
But I was talking about this kind of pumpkin…
Anyway.
These are the typical things which we connect with Halloween, but what else do we know about
this day?
Why do we celebrate Halloween ? And why do we dress up in costumes thatare kind of shit?
If you want to know, keep watching - ClueTube has it covered for you.
Alright folks, let's start at the beginning…
Halloween goes back to the ancient Celtic festival Samhain or pronounced "sow-in".
Who were the Celts?
Well, these badasses over here!
The Celts were an ancient tribe who lived 2000 years ago in the areas that we know as
Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France.
They also really liked to go for a long-distance walk – a fact, that other cultures like
the Romans and ancient Greek did not like so much...
But this - this is another story…
Just saying you could find these guys creeping around in some other areas as well in later
years…
Let's get back to our story.
The Celts celebrated their new year on the 1st of November.
Not just by accident, no man – that date marked the end of summer and the harvest.
It was also the beginning of the winter which meant cold and dark days… that again went
hand in hand with death, because we are talking about survival of the fittest kind of shit
here.
The Celts – as superstitious as they were – believed that on the night before New
Year the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred…
That is why they celebrated Samhain on October 31st, believing that the ghosts of the dead
come back to earth at that night…
I mean that was considered to be a sure thing.
During the celebrations the Celts wear costumes consisting of animal heads, skins and some
other nasty shit.
These guys knew how to party – you have to give them that...
Later around 43 A.D. the Roman Empire kicked some Celtic asses and took over most of their
territory and ruled it for 400 years.
During that time the Celtic festival Samhain was combined with two Roman festivals.
The first was Feralia, where the Romans remembered the dead, and the second was a day to honor
Pomona, the Roman god of fruits and trees.
The symbol of Pomona was an apple and it is probably the explanation for the tradition
of "bobbing apples" which is still practiced on Halloween today…
Yeah kids, now you know why you get healthy apples instead of candies… say thank you
to Pomona!
Later – on May 13, 609 A.D. to be exactly – Pope Boniface IV established the Catholic
feast of All Martyrs Day in the Western church.
Pope Gregory III later expanded the festival to include all saints as well and moved the
date of celebration from May 13 to November 1.
By the 9th century, the Celtic Islands and their rites were highly influenced by the
Christianity, and the church declared November 2 as the day to honor the dead – calling
it the All Souls´ Day.
Similar to Samhain the day was celebrated by dressing up in costumes, but as saints,
angels or devils…
Sounds lame?
What do you expect when the church takes over and runs the par-tey?
Anyway, the intention of the church was probably to substitute the Celtic festival with a related
but church-sanctioned holiday.
Sneaky bastards…
The All Saints Day celebration was also called All-hallows, or All-hallowmas which came from
the Middle English, meaning All Saints´ Day.
That is why the night before – the traditional night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows
Eve and, finally, Halloween.
Now you already got a lot of input, but all that took place in Europe.
Why then is it so famous and spread widely in America?
The celebration of Halloween was indeed extremely limited in colonial New England but still
much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies.
An American version of Halloween began to emerge, where neighbors would share stories
of the dead, dance and sing together.
When America was flooded with new immigrants in the second half of the nineteenth century,
the celebration of Halloween and the tradition to dress up in costumes got popularized especially
by the millions of Irish immigrants.
And that is why Halloween became one of the most celebrated festivals in the USA my friends.
Now you know and you are ready to get liquored up… sponsored by ClueTube…
No-no-no-NO!!!!
I mean don´t drink alcohol, be careful out there and catch some healthy apples…
THAT… is sponsored by ClueTube… forget the shit before and sign up for this channel.
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