Happy Halloween

[8_bit_quill]

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Halloween: Devil's Night or just a misunderstanding?Last night I heard Bill Maher tell the world to give Halloween back to kids. According to Mr. Maher, Halloween was created for the kids. Nice guess. But no, Bill. Again you are spouting like one of our illustrious LJ chroniclers. Halloween is

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[8_bit_quill]

Okay, I've slept and will now tackle your inquiry toa small degree.

Fearalia, as far as I can tell, is the origin of All Saints Day. Feralia is actually part of the Parentalia celebration which consisted of a day to honour dead parents. The next day (or fifteen days later depending on which scholars you talk to as there seems to be some confusion as to how long Parentalia lasted) was Faralia which was a day of blood sacrifices and was considered so dark a day that marriages were even forbiden on that day. Temples closed and it was considered a holiday for everyone whether they partook or not. Sorta like Christmas is in the US in modern times. There are variances depending on whether you go by the Augustan or Republican calendar as to whether this celebration was actually part of Parentalia (Republican) or the Dies Fasti (Augustan) celebration. Either way, that covers your honouring the dead as well as ritualistic activity concerning sacrificial practices. The This stuff covers tons of reading so I can't really stuff it all inot a LJ situation nor would I try. It's usually covered in your junior year, last semester if you major in theology or anythgin that would require extensive study of Roman culture. If you look inot the Parentalia, check out the Carista as well. It ws a sort of closing ceremony that the rest of the festival led up to and prepared for that ended up being similar to our tradition of family reunions.

bear in mind, this simply skims over Roman origins and does not even begin to uncover cultural influence from South American customs such as Dia de Muerte (I may have butchered the spelling. I can't keep languages straight) and the Asian influence in the occult (very heavy if you do your reading) nor does it address mythos surroundign Halloween since it was adopted (adapted, heh) by Americans sicne we arrived and murdered all the "savages" who had the audacity to live here before us. Add to that the substantial dogma attached due to the witch trials of Salem in teh US as well as those in other countries and you get an idea of how good your chances are of pinning down any actual fact as to the roots fo the day we call Halloween. For some degree of the broad strokes I'll give you this. The last en masse witch trials in Ireland were in the 1400's. That gave just that tiny area 300 years of urban legend and rumor madness before the stories were brought to America. Also consider that many durign that time would have moved and traveled abroad and taken those tales with them to be rearranged and fit into any local legend or lore suitable for the time and culture. And that was before the telephone, television, radio, and internet got hold of the pieces.

I can't give you a solid answer and neither can any scholar in the finest lyceum in the world. This is all speculation torn from the imagination and melded with historical 'fact'.

The real kicker is that the new Testament of the holy Bible is the most documented and verified piece of literature on the planet with more proof (scientific and otherwise) that it is true yet this is the stuff people seem interested in and take my word for but no one will let me tell them about my God without stating how sure they are that it is all lies. That's jsuta personal observation I added because I am ona writing tangent now and I feel wordy. *grin*

I love history. It makes it so easy to see how most people are just acting on ignorance because someone else did it first. God bless the trendy. 8]