DID YOU KNOW
plus people fly in all over the world to partake in all this darkness, with costume balls, to magic shows, to a parade of evil characters.
Lastly, I talked to some of these witches, and you could see and hear the darkness in them. They told me Halloween is their favorite time of the year with all the energy in town making it easier to conjure up spirits. We did not stay long because the heaviness to my spirit was too much for me to handle, and I was feeling mentally drained seeing so much evil that had this Halloweens vibe to it, and we had to go, because this was not a place that a Christian should visit and participate, except using the visit as a way for witnessing to these witches and telling them about Jesus Christ.
Anyway, each year, October 31st is a day that is celebrated by many. Halloween spending in the USA reached $11 billion in 2024, with 70% of people planning on celebrating.
But where do our Halloween traditions come from?
Anyway, as autumn unfolds, bringing with it russet leaves and longer nights, many people prepare for the spookiest night of the year. Halloween Pumpkins are carved; decorations appear and children (and adults) ready their costumes.
But where did these traditions begin?
Halloween’s origins can be traced back to the seventh century, when Pope Boniface IV established All Saints’ Day
on May 13th, to honour saints who had reached heaven. However, in the eighth century, this feast day was moved to November 1st. Upon this change, the day before it – October 31st became known as “All Hallows’ Eve,” or “Halloween.” The shift in this Christian date from May to November was likely intended to replace the pagan festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in), an ancient Celtic celebration marking the end of the harvest and the onset of winter.
In the landlocked midlands of Ireland, it would often have coincided with the first frosts. We do not know exactly how it was celebrated, but gatherings of tribal groups, feasting, and the lighting of bonfires almost certainly played a part. It was also during this time that the boundary between the living and the dead was believed to be at its thinnest, shown by widespread cultural practices. For instance, throughout the medieval period, people would light a candle at midnight to guide ghosts back to their home, believing that spirits walked the earth.