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So i thought that for my first entry i'd have something worthwhile, unfortunately im still a bit exauhsted from last night and the lack of sleep i've had over the past few days has rendered my brain almost to the point of worthlessness. Alas, as i sit here staring dumbfounded at my computer screen I started thinking about halloween, what do i really know about this holiday we so happily celebrate.

So what do i know about halloween? Not much in all honesty, not from any lack of research cause anyone who knows me knows i love research .. odd yes .. but i love having my nose in the books, but because everyon has their own ideas and theorums of the origins of this fine holiday. There's plenty of debate and speculation, plenty of "This is the true history of Halloween!" pretty much plenty of everything. So where can one go for an imformative answer to the question. "Where does halloween come from?" this year i decided to go to wikipedia of course!

And so here it is Wikipedias Halloween informative:
Upon loading wikipedia's home page i insert Halloween into the search menu and am promptly brought to a page full with Halloween information. And so here is the first paragraph...

Halloween is an observance celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most common in the United States, Puerto Rico, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada and sometimes in Australia and New Zealand. Irish, Scots and other immigrants brought older versions of the tradition to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.

Well now 2 things in this paragraph caught my eye almost instantly, the first being the sentence
Halloween is an observance celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy.
Now you may ask why did this catch my attention. Well i'll tell you .. the first word to catch my eye was "observance" now, when i think of observance i certainly dont think of halloween, to me an observance would be a religious holiday, like christmas, but maybe that's just me. The next part to catch my eye was "most notably by children" Now granted children are the only ones that dont get frowned upon for trick-o-treating, they certainly arent the only ones celebrating. I saw a rather large adult population strolling about the city in costume(ok, they werent really strolling but still they were alive and moving) are children really the only ones left to celebrate this fine holiday? Are adults so engrossed in their meager lives that they cannot take a holiday? Maybe for some, maybe even for a large number, but i doubt so high a number that they are worthy of bein excluded from such a sentence, it makes me feel left out..The last thing that caught my eye was
Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century

My it saddens me to think that this is the ultimate result of so many things in this country, "Pop Culture" sounds so fad-ish. Is this really what halloween has become?

Dissapointed early on i decided to continue on to the next paragraph..
Optimistic i eagerly read through the next paragraph waiting to see what information i could grab for my next debate! This is what i found..


The term "Halloween" (or eve) before the feast of All Saints (an important day in the Christian calendar), which used to be called "All Hallows" derived from All Hallowed Souls. In Ireland, the name was Hallow Eve and this name is still used by some older people. Halloween was also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries and given a Christian reinterpretation. In Mexico November 2nd, after All Saint's Day, following Halloween, is the Day of the Dead.

In all honesty i think their missing a few commas, and im horrific when it comes to grammar. If you ask me this paragraph simply hurt my head, it's just poorly written, i mean sheesh i wrote better paragraphs in the fourth grade( which was many moons ago) So lets reread this paragraph, removing paranthesis and any words in between and see how it sounds ...


The term "Halloween" before the feast of All Saints, which used to be called "All Hallows" derived from All Hallowed Souls. In Ireland, the name was Hallow Eve and this name is still used by some older people. Halloween was also sometimes called All Saints' Eve. The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries and given a Christian reinterpretation. In Mexico November 2nd, after All Saint's Day, following Halloween, is the Day of the Dead.

-rubs her temples- who wrote this? miserable i decided to skip ahead to their cultural history section. Now lets see what they have to say here.. So on i read, and found myself amazed at the information strewn about the section, curious? sure you are and so i will share with you what wise wikipedia shared with me...
Christian festival

Pope Boniface IV established an anniversary dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the martyrs when he consecrated the Pantheon on May 13, 609 (or 610). This Christian feast day was moved to November 1st from May 13th by Pope Gregory III in the eighth century in order to mark the dedication of the All Saints Chapel in Rome--establishing November 1st as All Saints Day and October 31st as All Hallows' Eve. Initially this change of date only applied to the diocese of Rome, but was extended to the rest of Christendom a century later by Pope Gregory IV in an effort to standardize liturgical worship.

The feast day of All Souls Day, celebrated to commemorate those souls condemned temporarily to Purgatory, was inaugurated by St Odilo, at the time the abbott of the influential monastery at Cluny, as 2 November in 998.

my christians sure do change a lot of dates....

paragraph 2 apparently contained the origins of Halloween, here's what it said...

Halloween's Origin: Celtic observation of Samhain

According to what can be reconstructed of the beliefs of the ancient Celts, the new year began around November 1, a day referred to in modern Gaelic as Samhain ("Sow-in" or alternatively "Sa-ven", meaning: End of the summer). Just as sundown meant the start of a new day, shorter days signified the start of the new year; therefore the harvest festival began every year on the night of October 31.

As November 1 is the first day of the new year, the day also meant the beginning of winter, which the Celts often associated with human death. The Celts also believed that on October 31 (the night before the new year), the boundary separating the dead from the living became blurred. (There is a rich and unusual myth system at work here; the spirit world, the residence of the "Sidhe," as well as of the dead, was accessible through burial mounds. These mounds opened at two times during the year, making the beginning and end of summer highly spiritually resonant.)

The Celts' survival during the cold harsh winters, depended on the prophecies of their priests or Druids. They believed that the presence of spirits would aid in the priests' abilities to make future predictions.

The exact customs observed in each Celtic region differ, but they generally involved the lighting of bonfires and the reinforcement of boundaries, across which malicious spirits might cross and threaten the community.

Like most observances around this season, warmth and comfort were emphasized, indulgence was not. Stores of preserved food were needed to last through the winter, not for parties.

Couple things here, first of all i had no idea that sunset was the start of a new day, here i have been wasting my day away sleeping! Another thing it seems that, just in case we forgot the first sentence in the paragraph wikipedia gladly reminds us that the new year begins on Nov. 1 more than once..
(There is a rich and unusual myth system at work here; the spirit world, the residence of the "Sidhe," as well as of the dead, was accessible through burial mounds. These mounds opened at two times during the year, making the beginning and end of summer highly spiritually resonant.) why exactly is this here? I mean a little extra bit of information is all good, but not when it has the potential of making the reader go wait! tell me more about this unusual myth system at work here!

So more aggitated now than anything i skipped on ahead to "Religious Viewpoints" hoping it had some insightful and useful knowledge i could retain in this knowledge thirsty brain of mine. Rubbing my hands together i read on, this is what i found..

The majority of Christians ascribe no doctrinal significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular entity devoted to celebrating imaginary spooks and handing out candy. The secular celebration of Halloween may loom larger in contemporary imagination than does All Saints' Day.

The mingling of Christian and pagan traditions in the development of Halloween, and its real or assumed preoccupation with evil and the supernatural, have left many modern Christians uncertain of how they should react towards the holiday. Some fundamentalist and evangelical along with many Eastern Orthodox Christians and Orthodox Jewish believers consider Halloween a pagan or Satanic holiday, and refuse to allow their children to participate. In some areas, complaints from fundamentalist Christians that the schools were endorsing a pagan religion have led the schools to stop distributing UNICEF boxes at Halloween.

Other Christians, however, continue to connect the holiday with All Saints Day. Some modern Christian churches commonly offer a "fall festival" or harvest-themed alternative to Halloween celebrations. Still other Christians hold the view that the holiday is not Satanic in origin or practice and that it holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality actually being a valuable life lesson.

Ironically, considering that most fundamentalist sects are Protestant in nature, many Protestant denominations celebrate October 31 as Reformation Day, which commemorates the October 31, 1517 posting of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. Many mainline churches and religious schools, particularly Lutheran ones, meld the two holidays without worrying about "Satanic influences."

Ah here we go, generaliziations! Now lets dissect it a little...

The majority of Christians ascribe no doctrinal significance to Halloween, treating it as a purely secular entity devoted to celebrating imaginary spooks and handing out candy.

This first sentence is true for a majority of this country i believe..

Some fundamentalist and evangelical along with many Eastern Orthodox Christians and Orthodox Jewish believers consider Halloween a pagan or Satanic holiday, and refuse to allow their children to participate

Im sorry but i cant help myself right now ...
"Mami why cant i go trick-o-treating?"
"Because johnny-boy HALLOWEEN IS THE DEVIL!"

In some areas, complaints from fundamentalist Christians that the schools were endorsing a pagan religion have led the schools to stop distributing UNICEF boxes at Halloween.

if you ask me..there's a battle for world domination going on now-a-days...

Other Christians, however, continue to connect the holiday with All Saints Day. Some modern Christian churches commonly offer a "fall festival" or harvest-themed alternative to Halloween celebrations. Still other Christians hold the view that the holiday is not Satanic in origin or practice and that it holds no threat to the spiritual lives of children: being taught about death and mortality actually being a valuable life lesson

where are these christians?

Ironically, considering that most fundamentalist sects are Protestant in nature, many Protestant denominations celebrate October 31 as Reformation Day, which commemorates the October 31, 1517 posting of Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. Many mainline churches and religious schools, particularly Lutheran ones, meld the two holidays without worrying about "Satanic influences."

because we all know those ancient 'pagan' religions worshiped the devil...

well that was the end of wikipedias ever not so helpful not so informative halloween sector. I could probably get more information out of a childrens book, it was a feeble attempt at providing some information on a much confused and not so well historilized holiday. I just hope no one used this information for a book report...Now im sure there was much more useful information in the parts i skipped, but i just couldnt force myself to read the whole thing, I've done Halloween information tidbits in the past and never have i felt like i started with more knowledge on the subject than when i left...

Be nice to people...it's the polite thing to do...