1、WESTERN FOLK CUSTOMSHalloweenHalloween (or Halloween) is a holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a secular celebration, but some Christians and Pagans have expressed strong feelings about its religious

2、 overtones. Irish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America during Irelands Great Famine of 1846. The day is often associated with the colors orange and black, and is strongly associated with symbols such as the jack-o-lantern. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, ghos

3、t tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o-lanterns, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies.1. HISTORYHalloween has origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain.Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient Celtic pagans to tak

4、e stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Celts believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the living and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The fe

5、stivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to copy the evil spirits or placate them.1.1 ORIGIN OF NAMEThe term Halloween is shortened from All Hallows Even (both “even” and “ev

6、e” are abbreviations of “evening,” but “Halloween” gets its “n” from “even”) as it is the eve of “All Hallows Day”, which is now also known as All Saints Day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions, until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Chr

7、istian feast of All Saints Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints Day is now considered to oc

8、cur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day.2. SYMBOLSOn Hallows eve, the ancient Celts would place a skeleton on their window sill to represent the departed. The name jack-o-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a greedy, gam

9、bling, hard-drinking old farmer. He tricked the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack, condemning him to forever wander the earth at night with the only light he had: a candle inside of a hollowed turnip. The c

10、arving of pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America, where pumpkins were not only readily available but much larger, making them easier to carve than turnips. The carved pumpkin was originally associated with harvest time in general, in America and did not become specifically associated

11、 with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.The imagery surrounding Halloween is largely an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, works of Gothic and horror literature, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists, and a rather commercialized take on the dark a

12、nd mysterious. Halloween imagery tends to involve death, evil, magic, or mythical monsters. Traditional characters include the Devil, the Grim Reaper, ghosts, ghouls, demons, witches, pumpkin-men, goblins, vampires, werewolves, zombies, mummies, skeletons, black cats, spiders, bats, owls, crows, and

13、 vultures.The two main colors associated with Halloween are orange and black.3. TRICK-OR-TREATING AND GUISING3.1 COSTUMESHalloween costumes are traditionally those of monsters such as ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils. Costumes are also based on themes other than traditional horror, such as tho

14、se of characters from television shows, movies, and other pop culture icons.3.2 COSTUME SALESBIGresearch conducted a survey for the National Retail Federation in the United States and found that 53.3% of consumers planned to buy a costume for Halloween 2005, spending $38.11 on average (up $10 from t

15、he year before). They were also expected to spend $4.96 billion in 2006, up significantly from just $3.3 billion the previous year.3.3 UNICEF“Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF” has become a common sight during Halloween in North America. Started as a local event in a Philadelphia suburb in 1950 and expanded

16、 nationally in 1952, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools (or in modern times, corporate sponsors like Hallmark, at their licensed stores) to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small-change donations from the houses they visit. It is estimated that children have

17、collected more than $119 million (US) for UNICEF since its inception. In 2006, UNICEF discontinued their Halloween collection boxes in parts of the world, citing safety and administrative concerns.4. GAMES AND OTHER ACTIVITIESIn this Halloween greeting card from 1904, divination is depicted: the you

18、ng woman looking into a mirror in a darkened room hopes to catch a glimpse of the face of her future husband.There are several games traditionally associated with Halloween parties. The most common is dunking or apple bobbing, in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water; the participant

19、s must use their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drop the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without usin

20、g hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a very sticky face.The telling of ghost stories and viewing of horror films are common fixtures of Halloween parties. Episodes of TV series and specials with Halloween themes (with the specials usually aimed at ch

21、ildren) are commonly aired on or before the holiday, while new horror films, are often released theatrically before the holiday to take advantage of the atmosphere.4.1 HAUNTED ATTRACTIONSHaunted attractions are entertainment venues designed to thrill and scare patrons; most are seasonal Halloween bu

22、sinesses. Origins of these paid scare venues are difficult to pinpoint, but it is generally accepted that they were first commonly used by the Jaycees for fundraising. They include haunted houses, corn mazes, and hayrides, and the level of sophistication of the effects has risen as the industry has

23、grown. 4.2 FOODSBecause the holiday comes in the wake of the annual apple harvest, candy apples (also known as toffee, caramel or taffy apples) are a common. Other foods associated with the holiday: Candy corn, Birn Breac (Ireland), Colcannon (Ireland), bonfire toffee (in the UK),Toffee Apple (Austr

24、alia when celebrated, England, Wales and Scotland, instead of “Candy Apples”), apple cider, Cider, toasted sweetcorn, popcorn, Roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread, “pun-sized” or individually wrapped pieces of small candy, typically in Halloween colors of orange, and brown/black, no

25、velty candy shaped like skulls, pumpkins, bats, worms, etc, small bags of potato chips, pretzels and caramel corn, chocolates, caramels, and gum, nuts.5. AROUND THE WORLDHalloween is not celebrated in all countries and regions of the world, but among those that do that traditions and importance of t

26、he celebration varies significantly. The celebrations in the United States have had a significant impact on how the holiday is observed in other nations. The history of Halloween traditions in a given country lends context to how it is presently celebrated.6. RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVESIn North America, Christian attitudes towards Halloween are quite diverse. In the Anglican Church, some dioceses have ch