Halloween

Halloween is a festival celebrated worldwide but many people don’t know the origins of it. Do you know the origin of Halloween?

Halloween was called many different names, some of which you may have heard. They called Halloween ‘Samhain’, which is pronounced sow-in. On Samhain Night people believed that it was the night where the wall between the spirit world and their world became extremely thin and let ghosts and spirits through. They had bonfires and dressed up in costumes to blend in or scare the spirits away. Another name was ‘All Hallows Eve’ which progressed to ‘Hallowe’en’ in 1745.

A lot of people think that Halloween originated in America. Halloween actually originated in Ireland and was then brought down to America by Irish immigrants and was built upon. Really, the Americans made Halloween into the affair that we know of today.

On Halloween night many people dress up in scary costumes and walk around trick or treating. Halloween was originally celebrated by children and poor adults. They dressed up as angels, saints, demons and ghosts. There was also candy involved from the very beginning, as people set out sweets so the spirits were pleased with them.

There are some specific foods to Halloween. One is soul cakes, which are small round cakes that are referred to as souls. Another is roasted pumpkin seeds, which we take as symbolism of autumn harvest. There is candy corn, which is corn made from ingredients that normally go into candy. A less known food that is eaten at Halloween is monkey nuts. These are popular in Scotland and Ireland.

Person of the week

Mary Shelley was author of popular novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus. She was the second child of Mary Wollstonecraft and first child of William Godwin. When Shelley’s mother died, her father married Mary Jane Clairmont.

Book of the week

Harry Potter is about the fictional wizarding world. This bestselling series by J.K. Rowling has been transformed into eight blockbuster movies by Warner Bros. It has also been translated into 80 different languages. J.K.Rowling has also written three accompaniment books for the aid of Comic Relief and Lumos.

By Amelie Mueller, Jessica Smith, Noa Rosenzveig and Jamie Nabarro