萬圣節(jié)的由來英文詳情
萬圣節(jié)的由來英文詳情
Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?
The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.
Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.
Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840 s by Irish immigrants fleeing their country s potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.
The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians would walk from village to village begging for "soul cakes," made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul s passage to heaven.
The Jack-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree s trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.
According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip to keep it glowing longer.
The Irish used turnips as their "Jack s lanterns" originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins were far more plentiful than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin, lit with an ember.
So, although some cults may have adopted Halloween as their favorite "holiday," the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.
萬圣節(jié)扮鬼要注意什么
1、吃蒜戴古玉
如果你想湊熱鬧，萬圣節(jié)扮鬼派對，建議去玩之前生食蒜頭，或?qū)⑸忸^、古玉(陪過葬的古玉最好)戴在身上，這樣會有辟邪的作用。
2、避開陰暗場所
有不少人為了湊鬼氣，加上覺得萬圣節(jié)這西方節(jié)日百無禁忌，而到陰暗的地方應(yīng)節(jié)，但切記如墳場、海灘、水塘、焦樹林等地方不宜接近，因為這些場所特別容易招惹靈體，再加上你一身的鬼里鬼氣的打扮，隨時會惹鬼近身。
3、忌扮“咸濕鬼”
原來扮什么類型的鬼怪亦有禁忌，千萬不要扮“咸濕鬼”，除了會招惹到真的“咸濕鬼”外，假若被“咸濕鬼”上身，還要承擔很多嚴重的后果。
4、勿放鬼面具、骷髏骨
有些人將鬼面具、骷髏骨公仔等當潮流飾物擺放在家里，其實這些飾物等于豎起招攬陰靈的天線，召集陰靈赴會。如果家里聚集了陰靈，家里的好運磁場更會遭受破壞，輕則令人的健康變差，經(jīng)常生病，而且病了看醫(yī)生吃藥都沒用，重則更會被鬼近身，后果難測。
5、忌飲酒太多
萬圣節(jié)當日，若果想出去狂歡的話，就要切記不宜飲太多酒，因為飲醉后，除了缺乏自制能力外，更會容易被靈體侵占，而且即使發(fā)現(xiàn)不妥，都未能立即求救。
美國人如何過萬圣節(jié)
每年十月三十一日是西方傳統(tǒng)的萬圣節(jié)，有人稱之為南瓜節(jié)，也有人稱之為鬼節(jié)。它和任何宗教沒有關(guān)系，完全是民間娛樂性的。而且，老少皆宜，輕松搞笑。萬圣節(jié)是一個很神奇的節(jié)日，大概起源于與邪惡相關(guān)的慶?；顒?，所以騎著掃帚的女巫、小妖精和骷髏都是萬圣節(jié)的標志物。貓頭鷹和其他夜間活動的動物也是萬圣節(jié)的普遍標志。起初，這些動物讓人覺得非常可怕，因為人們認為這些動物能和進行交流。
南瓜燈是最有特色的代表?？赡瞎蠠粲质窃趺磥淼哪?據(jù)說有一個叫杰克的愛爾蘭人，因為他對錢特別吝嗇，就不允許他進入天堂，而被打入地獄。但是在那里他來是很調(diào)皮，老是愛捉弄魔鬼撒旦，所以又被踢出地獄，罰他提著燈籠永遠在人世里行走。
一般來說，從十月初開始，各家各戶就開始作迎接萬圣節(jié)的準備。裝扮住房，南瓜是少不了的。一到這季節(jié)，各大超市的南瓜都廉價出售，有的只賣幾美分一磅(差不多等于中國的一市斤)。南瓜有大有小，大的有上百磅，甚至于上千磅，小的只有幾盎司(幾兩)。
南瓜的顏色也不一，有橙黃色，淡黃色，白色，還有綠色，無花八門。形狀也有很大差異，有圓的，橢圓的，扁的，還有葫蘆狀的。每家每戶都要買它好幾個放在家門口或窗臺上。到了萬圣節(jié)那天，再將它們用刀刻出各種鬼怪面孔，到了晚上在南瓜里面點上臘燭，南瓜鬼臉在黑暗里一閃一閃的，很有一番樂趣。各種各樣桔黃色的南瓜燈就在孩子們智慧的小手中制造了出來。
萬圣節(jié)的起源
萬圣節(jié)的起源：宗教祭祀。關(guān)于萬圣節(jié)的起源，版本很多，流傳很廣:2023多年前，歐洲_將把11月1日定為“天下圣徒之日”?！癏ALLOW也就是圣徒的意思。據(jù)說自公元前500年以來，凱爾特人居住在愛爾蘭、蘇格蘭等地(CELTS)將這個節(jié)日向前移動一天，即10月31日。他們認為這一天是夏天正式結(jié)束的日子，也就是新年伊始，嚴酷的冬天開始的日子。當時，人們相信老朋友的死亡靈魂會在這一天回到故居，在活著的人身上尋找生物，從而再生，這是死后人們再生的唯一希望。活著的人害怕死者的靈魂來殺死他們的生命，所以人們在這一天熄滅了爐火和燭光，這樣死者的靈魂就找不到活人，把自己打扮成怪物來嚇跑死者的靈魂。之后，他們會重新點燃火種和燭光，開始新年的生活。
萬圣節(jié)其實是一個贊美秋天的節(jié)日，就像五月節(jié)是贊美春天一樣。德魯伊德，古代高盧、不列顛和愛爾蘭的祭司，有一個盛大的秋季節(jié)日，從10月31日的午夜到次日的11月1日。他們認為，在那天晚上，他們偉大的死神薩曼召喚了所有死去的鬼魂，這些鬼魂將被托生為牲畜。當然，只要想到這種鬼魂聚會，就足以讓那些頭腦簡單的愚民膽戰(zhàn)心驚。于是他們點起篝火，嚴密監(jiān)視這些惡鬼。這就是萬圣節(jié)前夜到處都有女巫和鬼魂的說法。到目前為止，在歐洲一些與世隔絕的地區(qū)，有些人認為這是真的。
古羅馬人在11月1日也有一個節(jié)日，用來向他們的波莫娜女神致敬。他們在篝火前烤堅果和蘋果。我們的萬圣節(jié)似乎是由古羅馬人的節(jié)日和德魯伊德的節(jié)日組成的。
萬圣節(jié)的活動過去很簡單，而且大部分都是在教堂里進行的。但在整個歐洲，人們認為萬圣節(jié)的前夕是玩耍和鬼魂故事互相嚇唬的好機會。所以人們不再用這個節(jié)日來贊美秋天，而是把它變成了怪物、巫婆和鬼魂的節(jié)日。
萬圣節(jié)南瓜燈怎么來的
南瓜燈源于古代愛爾蘭。傳說一個名叫Jack的人，是個醉漢且愛惡作劇。在萬圣節(jié)當日，他設(shè)圈套將魔鬼困在一棵樹上，他不許魔鬼下來，直至惡魔答應(yīng)永遠不讓他住在地獄。Jack死后，因他不相信神，他不能進天堂，而魔鬼也不讓他入地獄，為了協(xié)助Jack找到回人間的路徑，魔鬼給了他一塊燃燒的炭，Jack將這燃燒的炭放在他以大紅蘿卜雕刻成的一個燈籠內(nèi)，這第一個“Jack的燈籠”，幫助找尋他的路徑回愛爾蘭，但他從沒找著，于是他永遠帶著燈籠流浪人間。
在古老的愛爾蘭傳說里，這根小蠟燭是在一根挖空的蘿卜里放著，稱作“Jack Lanterns”，而古老的蘿卜燈演變到今天，則是南瓜做的Jack-O-Lantern了。據(jù)說愛爾蘭人到了美國不久，即發(fā)現(xiàn)南瓜不論從來源和雕刻來說都比蘿卜更勝一籌，于是南瓜就成了萬圣節(jié)的寵兒。