Americans. Please can you explain to me why Halloween is celebrated so much. I'm English and just don't get it, sorry.
26 Answers to "Americans. Please can you explain to me why Halloween is celebrated so much. I'm English and just don't get it, sorry."
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Marketing.
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As an American, I find Halloween to be just another over-commercialized charade of a holiday
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"over-commercialized" is so right - and so sad.Like (1)
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I American and I don't get it either, but it is fun for the kids.
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I'm*
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In England in the 12th century poor children would go door-to-door and offer to pray for the souls of the dead in exchange for "soul cakes". Poor children on that night in Ireland would place their candles inside hollowed out turnips and take them to the graveyards to pray for the souls of the dead.
When Irish immigrants came to the United States in the 20's and 30's their traditions got out of hand, and they turned to hooliganism on that night, lighting bonfires and performing terrible acts of vandalism. It got so bad that in an effort to stem the violence, mothers banded together and offered them treats...candy and other goodies...if only they would stop...hence "trick or treat".
Collecting treats on that night has blossomed into a costume party for children...and a marketing wonderland....and now adults want to partake and make it their party time as well. (Anything for a party).Like (3)
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Thanks for the great explanation!Like (1)
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Thursday, 01Nov2012/~11 AM ----------------------- WOW!!! I didn't know that Roll22323. I'm an historian (w/ lots & lots more to learn), writing my first novel (a Fictional/History novel written for age 12-16) & I'm 3/4 Brit/Scottish/Irish. My great grandfather came from Edinburgh, Scotland, & I have cousins in Leigh, Lancashire, England, whom I visited (via the US Navy) back in 1979: Pendleburys. Soo, my ancestors did that. "Soul cakes"?! Wow. I'd like to hear more. Going to do a Google search on "Soul Cakes". ------------------------------------------------------------- Thanx Rolle2323,------------------------------------ Appreciatively, Heathland {:-{)>Like (1)
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It's not that big of a deal,kids put on costumes and go around the block Trick or treating.
For young adults it's an excuse to have a Party,like any other excuse. :)Like (2)
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It's because we were settled by the Scotts and the Irish, I think and it's a holdover from the Celtic times. Now of course, we use it as an excuse to dress our women in slutty outfits and get roaring drunk...I'm surprised you lot haven't re-embraced it
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That's what weekends are for we don't wait for once a year! lol
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I don't get it either. It has exploded bigger than ever in the last 10 years. To me, it's just a celebration of evil. I'd rather celebrate the harvest!
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I think Judgernaut hit it on the head! I was going to say I'm American and I don't get it either.
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No need to feel sorry you don't understand a custom in a different country. True, at the time of the American Revolution there was much similarity between the England and the colonies but since then our cultural histories have been quite different. Now will you explain Boxing Day, please.
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For children it's candy, for adults it's "Dress like a **** day" where you can pretty much get away with wearing anything you want.
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The US is more culturally diverse, for example, a large part of our population is Latino and in Mexico they celebrate the "day of the dead" where since medieval times they have danced around in skeleton costumes and celebrated the lives of their ancestors. Virtually all shamanistic cultures have a similar holiday and in the US it has become the big day of the year for costume parties as well as trick or treating for kids. In a few places like New Orleans they have Mardi gra which is a similar excuse to dress up, throw candy and fake jewelry around, and in general cut loose, but it's not a big national holiday.
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Honestly, I am not into it and I don't know that I will want my kids into it either. I have nothing against the cute fun costumes but some of them are down right disgusting and scary!!
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Well I'm American and I don't get your Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics
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That's because you haven't studied the history of Britain, the green fields of farming that turned into the industrial lands and how Britain was at the forefront of Engineering.
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There is always a party pooper.
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Candy/Psychos what more could you ask for? An Idol on a chain?
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People here complain about it (Aussies) but i think let the kids have fun, i remember when Luke did it with his friends,he'd come back with money and junk,you couldn't wipe the smile of his face. As long as they don't come knocking on my door,has i don't have anything and that includes money.
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So when you ask about holidays that we celebrate, you go straight to halloween? Okay.
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I didn't ask about holidays...I specifically asked about halloween. Numpty
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Mostly because people enjoy it. They like the idea and "spookiness". Kids like dressing up in costumes and going out at night. They like going to houses and having people "oooh" and "ahh" over their costumes, and they like getting candy. Adults like going to Halloween parties...usually dressed up. Some churches hold carnivals. We have corn mazes and other things going on around here for Halloween, like a haunted house folks can walk through. It's just fun. And face it, people like to be a bit "scared" by the idea of All Hallow's Eve, even if they have no idea where the holiday originated.
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It's ok. I like hallloween alot for two reasons. #1 I get to dress up in clothes I'd ordonarilly never wear, which is fun.
#2- the day after is my b-day! P-A-R-T-Y all night long!! Heheheh! Dunno about everyone else though.Like (1)
Best Answer (Chosen By Asker):
Posted by jeffpolara Oct 30th, 2012 at 4:57PM
Celebration of Halloween was extremely limited in colonial New England because of the rigid Protestant belief systems there. Halloween was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups as well as the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included "play parties," public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other's fortunes, dance and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that on Halloween they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything "frightening" or "grotesque" out of Halloween celebrations. Because of these efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A n
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Reply by daviesgirl Oct 30th, 2012 at 4:52PM
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Reply by daviesgirl Oct 30th, 2012 at 5:03PM
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