Halloween - All Saints' Day Eve (Samine)

Children dress up as monsters and walk around neighborhood houses demanding sweetsHallowe (Hallows Evening) is the night before All Saints Day. They say Halloween is at least two thousand years old. The origins of this controversial holiday take from Celtic culture. The Celts had “the beginnings of the seasons.” There were four. Samhain marked the arrival of winter and was celebrated on October 31.

In the VII century, Pope Boniface IV approved November 1 All Saints Day, wishing to distract the English people from pagan customs. Later, November 2 became the Day of Souls - when all the dead were commemorated. However, traditions were preserved in the people’s memory, and they were not defeated until the end.

The holiday is now returning to Europe. Children dress up as monsters and walk around neighborhood houses demanding sweets. They also arrange masquerades and put a hollow pumpkin out the window with eyes cut out and a mouth and candle inside to scare away spirits.

By the way, pumpkin is an American invention. And before that, in Ireland and Scotland, terrible faces, in which candles were inserted, were carved from raps and potatoes, in England from beets.