Halloween Fancy Dress | Horror Costumes | Halloween Wigs | Gothic Make up | Essex UK

All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, All Hollows Day or Halloween...

...or whatever you call it stems from the 5th Century Celts who celebrated the 31st October as the last day of summer. The festival was called Samhein (Pronounced Sow-in)

Trick or Treat probably has a few origins:
During Samhein it was thought that the dead would play tricks on the living, causing destruction. To appease the dead, food would have been handed out to the passing Druids.

There is also a 9th century custom called 'souling'. On November 2nd, all souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for 'soul' cakes. Soul cakes were made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more cakes the beggars received, the more prayers they would offer on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. During this time, it was thought that the dead remained in limbo and prayers (even those of a stranger) would speed up the process to heaven.

The wearing of masks during Halloween is very common today. Mask wearing stems from long ago. When disaster struck it was believed that the demons that had brought the disaster would be frightened off by hideous masks. Even after the festival of Samhein had merged with Halloween, Europeans felt uneasy at this time of the year. Food would be stored in preparation of the long, hard winter and the house was snug and warm. The ghosts were kept outside and if someone wanted to venture outside, they would wear a mask so the ghosts would not recognise them.

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