Halloween

Halloween is the modern name of the ancient Irish and Scottish holiday of Samhain (pronounced SOW-win), a Celtic-Gaelic word meaning “summers-end”. It begins at dusk on October 31, and marks the doorway to the dark half of the Celtic year, the opening of a new cycle.

In the 7th-century CE the Pope established All Saints’ Day, originally on May 13, and in the following century it was moved to November 1. The evening before All Saints’ Day became a holy, or hallowed, eve and thus Samhain became Halloween.

The Reformation put an end to the religious holiday among Protestants, although in Britain Halloween continued to be celebrated as a secular holiday. The celebration of Halloween was mostly forbidden among the early American colonists, until the 1800s.

Agenda:

1. Make a costume

2. Trick or Treats

1. Make a costume:

Originally, folks probably dressed in costumes and masks at Samhain to scare off any spirits that were bad. Now we do it because it's fun! 

This year I am a wizard - again and my grandsons are a ladybug and a bee!

3. Trick or Treats:

Last year we got to train up a new trick-or-treater! It's a right of passage ceremony, really - you are deemed old enough now, at the ripe age of 2-1/2, to walk up to the doors of strangers and ask for candy.

We practiced the etiquette and protocols: How to safely climb the steps, knock on the door, say "Trick or Treat", and pick out ONE candy, then say "Thank-you".

This was so impactful that this year it's all he can talk about. He's been practicing trick or treat with his stuffed toys all month!

This year he is having a full blown trick-or-treat experience with mom, dad, baby brother, aunt, uncle, and great uncle trailing along!