The Historic Saratoga Village merchants went all out for this year's Halloween season. Most of these photos were recently taken while Cecile and I walked the downtown area recently after lunch. The other pics were taken at Rinconada Hills where we live and a couple while babysitting our granddaughter Lyla cozying up to her first Halloween pumpkin with great joy on the porch of the home she shares with our daughter Michelle and husband Kyle.
Most scholars agree that Halloween began about 2,000 years ago when the ancient Celtic people of Europe celebrated the end of the harvest and the start of a new year in a festival called Samhain. It was also a time of communing with otherworldly spirits, with big bonfires lit in honor of the dead, and the wearing of costumes to ward off ghosts. When the Romans conquered most of the Celtic territory by 43 A.D., they brought their own fall festivals with them. Their October celebration called Feralia also commemorated the passing of the dead. Fast forward a few centuries and Several Christian popes attempted to replace “pagan” holidays like Samhain with events of their own design. By 1000 A.D., All Souls’ Day on Nov 2 served as a time for the living to pray for the souls of the dead, and All Saints Day was assigned to November 1, to honor the saints and was also called All Hallows, making October 31 All Hallows Eve, and later becoming Halloween.
Despite the new religious focus, people in Old England and Ireland continued to associate the time with the wandering dead. They set out gifts of foods to please the spirits, and as time wore on, people began to dress in scary costumes in exchange for treats—a practice called “mumming,” which is comparable to today’s trick-or-treating which skyrocketed in popularity by the 1950s, when Halloween became a real national event. Today, over 179 million Americans celebrate this holiday.
Happy Halloween Lyla & Friends & Family
Love Papa Dennis & Nonnie Cecile
