HALLOWEENBY:Cristian, Elena, Fabian and

Inhiaki

ORIGINSHalloween is an

annual holiday observed on October 31. It has roots in

the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints'

Day,

Nowadays, it is an international celebration.

The festival of Samhain celebrates the end of the "lighter half" of the year

and beginning of the "darker half",

The ancient Celts believed that the border between

this world and the Otherworld became

thin on Samhain, allowing spirits to pass through .

The family's ancestors

were honoured

and invited home while

harmful spirits were warded off.

It is believed that the need to ward off harmful

spirits led to the wearing of costumes and masks.

 Samhain was also a time to take stock of food

supplies and for winter stores. 

Bonfires played a large part in the

festivities. All other fires were doused and each home lit their hearth from the bonfire. The

bones of slaughtered

livestock were cast into its flames. Sometimes two

bonfires would be built side-by-side, and people and their livestock

would walk between them as a

cleansing ritual.

symbols

Many Halloween´s symbols are

universal; but others, in each cultural

group, the images are seeing from its own perspectives.

They can symbolize various forms of death: physical and spiritual; the innocuous thrills that go with what they believe to be little more than a fun; and the genuine evil, the lures of an occult world view manipulated by Satan.

For example, associated

wih Samhain and the

bonefires, bats are

compared with the

passing from one phase of

life to another .

Anothes example are black cats. Tthe cat has long been related with otherworldly concepts..

Black is a common color of mystery and

the unknown.

jack´o-lantern

An old Irish folk tale tells of Stingy Jack, a lazy yet shrewd farmer who uses a cross to trap the Devil. One story says that Jack

tricked the Devil into climbing an apple tree,

and once he was up there Jack quickly placed

crosses around the trunk or carved a cross into the

bark, so that the Devil couldn't get down.

Another myth says that Jack put a key in the

Devil's pocket while he was suspended upside-

down.

Another version of the myth

says that Jack was getting

chased by some villagers from whom he had

stolen, when he met the Devil, who claimed it was time for him to die.

However, the thief stalled his death by tempting the Devil with a chance to

bedevil the church-going villagers

chasing him. Jack told the Devil to turn into a coin with which he

would pay for the stolen goods; later, when the coin/Devil

disappeared, the Christian villagers

would fight over who had stolen it.

jack´o-lantern

The Devil agreed to this plan. He turned himself into a silver

coin and jumped into Jack's wallet,

only to find himself next to a cross Jack had also picked up in the village. Jack

had closed the wallet tight, and

the cross stripped the Devil of his

powers; and so he was trapped.

In both myths, Jack only lets the Devil go when he agrees never to

take his soul. After a while Jack died, and, of course, his life had been too

sinful to go to heaven; however,

the Devil had promised not to

take his soul, and so he was out

from hell as well. Jack now had

nowhere to go.

He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember that would never burn out from the flames of hell. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which was his favourite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o'-Lantern.

LEYENDAS URBANAS

Urban Legends are modern, fictional stories

told as truth that reached a wide

audience by being passed from person to

person and town to town. Urban Legends

are often myths and are false, however some

urban legends are true. The legends that are not

true have sometimes been inspired by an

actual event, but evolved into something

different in their passage from person to

person

 One story tells that Bloody Mery was a really beautifull fifteen years old girl. But she was really vain too, and the centre of her vain was her hair, which she brushed a hundred times every night.

For example, the legend of Bloody Mery is one of the most recognized.

One day, a man wanted to make her a joke, and he waited in her room until night. When she was in front of the mirror, the man cover her mouth and cut all her hair. She couldn’t see her ugly and she committed suicide. The legend says that if you tell her name three times in front a mirror, she

will appear to tear you the eyes.

Another story tells that Boody Mery was a seriously ill girl, and her disease can not be cured. The doctor, who was her father, decided to bury her in the garden after four days in coma. He tied a thread with a bell on her wrist, and he went to sleep.

At the morning, he went to the garden and he saws the bell down. Immediately, he opened the tomb and he saw that her daughter has blood in her hands. He saw she hasn’t got nails too, because they where embedded at the coffin lid. The believe is that if you say her name three times in front a mirror with three candles, she appears.

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