Thème Anglais : Halloween

Halloween

Halloween is a famous celebration in all he english speaking countries. And now, it’s even celebrated in France. It’s celebrated on October 31st. This celebration has got 2 origins. The first on is celtic. In the ancient times the celts celebrated the end of the summer and the begining of the nex year. The second origins is Catholic. It cames from the catholic “alls saints” day. On “all saints” day the dead were supposed to come and to be the living. Thus the people dressed up with horrible clothes and made a lot of noise to scare the dead. They also made a cake called “soul cake”. Beggars used to go from house to house, and from village to village, to ask for a piece of cake. If the people gave them a piece of cake, they prayed for their dead. If not, they didn’t pray, the dead come to take the living. In fact, the “trick or treat” comes from the tradition of the soul cake. Little by little, it has changed. The beggars been replaced by the children, and the soul cake has been replaced by at first oranges, then by candies. The original trick or treat is that the children with throw flour at the people who refused to give them sweets.

There is also, the Jack O’Lantern tradition. It comes from the tale of Jack. Jack was an alcoholic and dishonest Irish man. One day, Jack traped the devil in a tree. To be freed, Jack made a deal with the devil. In exchange of this freedom, the devil promised not to accept Jack in the hell at his death. When Jack died, the devil held his promise and Jack went to paradise. There, god told him that he had made too many sims to be accpted in heaven. So Jack was forced to wander until the end of times. The devil gave an ember to light his path. Jack carved a turnip and put his ember inside. Later when the first Irish pilgrims arrived in America, there were non turnips, so they used a pumkin.

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