Hello everyone. Are you ready to learn about the history of Halloween? Okay then, let’s learn history.
Samhain
Let’s go back through history. Halloween dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain in the Irish language means November. The Celtic festival of Samhain was mostly celebrated in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and northern France. They celebrated their new year on November the first. Their new year marked the end of summer. It was the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on Samhain the ghosts of the dead returned to earth on October the thirty first. All Saints’ Day or all-hallowmas merged into Halloween by the end of the fifteenth century and became a blend of sacred and secular celebrations that remained especially strong in Britain, Ireland, and Scotland.
Trick-or-treating
On Halloween poor children would visit wealthier homes asking for gifts such as food, money, and ale. In the eighteen hundreds Halloween tricks became a common practice. Children would go “guising” going house to house on Halloween to put on small performances to be rewarded with food.
Masks and costumes
On Halloween people wore masks and costumes to disguise themselves from the ghosts, fairies, and demons that they thought roamed on Halloween night. That is why we dress up.
Why we carve pumpkins
In the eighteen hundreds in Ireland people would carve vegetables into scary faces to scare off spirits. They would usually use turnips, potatoes, or beets. The carved vegetables were used to hold candles because lanterns were too expensive for most people. In the eighteen hundreds many Scots and Irish people immigrated to get away from the famine to the US bringing their Halloween traditions with them. When the Scots and Irish came to America they realized that pumpkins and groves were better for carving into lanterns. That’s why we have Jack-o-lanterns till this day.
Poisoned candy
The most infamous case took place on October the thirty first, nineteen seventy four. The case is at least forty nine years old. A Texas man named Ronald O’Bryan gave cyanide-laced pixie sticks to five children, including his son. The other children never ate the candy, but Ronald’s son, Timothy, did and died soon after. This case has still not been solved. It’s possible that Ronald put poison on the candy or the company that made the candy put poison on the candy.
Halloween movies have a long history of being box office hits. A classic Halloween movie the “Halloween” franchise, based off of a nineteen seventy eight film directed by John Carpenter. The stars names are Donald Pleasance, Nick Castle, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Tony Moran. In “Halloween,” a boy named Michael Myers murders his sister and is committed to jail. But he escapes on Halloween night and to seek out his old home, and a new target. It’s a direct sequel to that, “Halloween Kills,” was release in two thousand twenty one. And a sequel to that, “Halloween Ends,” was released in two thousand twenty two. To the classic horror film down to its spooky soundtrack, “Halloween” inspired other iconic “slasher films” like “Scream,” “Nightmare on Elm Street,” and “Friday the Thirteenth.” More family-friendly movies include “Hocus-pocus,” “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Beetlejuice,” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
Who was I for Halloween?
On October the thirty first, two thousand twenty three I was Zelda. If you don’t know who Zelda is or you do I’ll just give you guys a recap about her. Zelda is a video game character from Zelda Breath of the Wild (the first game in the series) and Zelda Tears of the Kingdom (the second game in the series and it just came out). Zelda is the princess of Hyrule. She has a protector or a friend named Link. In Breath of the Wild Link has to make new friends and become a worrier. When he wakes up inside a shrine and he doesn’t remember who he is or anything about his past. So he goes on an adventure and at the very end of the story he has to fight Calamity Ganon. When he defeats him he saves the princess and happily ever after. But no! There is no happily ever after yet. In Tears of the Kingdom Link and Zelda go under Hyrule castle and find the body of Ganon Dwarf with a hand that’s not the body’s hand attached to the body. Then the hand detaches itself from the body and falls onto the floor. Then Zelda notices a stone and picks it up. It almost looks like a spiral. Then Ganon Dwarf comes back to life. Then he uses his powers to make the castle go up into the sky. Then Ganon Dwarf falls into the infinite darkness and the princess does to. Link try’s to save her, but then she turns into a star and disappears. Right before Link was going to fall into the darkness a hand saves him. Link then wakes up in another shrine this time it looks like half of an egg shell. When he wakes up he does remember everything about him. He realizes that he is on a sky island and he gets to meet the spirit of King Raru the first king of Hyrule. They work together and Link falls down from the sky with his old glider and lands back on solid ground. While that all happens to Link, Zelda finds herself in the past. She meets King Raru and Queen Sonia, Raru’s wife. Zelda is decedents from them. Then Zelda swallows the stone that she found under the castle and turns into a dragon. At the end of the game Link has to fight Ganon Dwarf and after he almost defeats him Link has to ride on the princess and fight Ganon Dwarf since he turns into a dragon. Then in the end Link saves the fallen princess and happily ever after. The end.
The schedule at school
If we have school on Halloween or not we will have a Halloween celebration. If the day that we are celebrating Halloween is not a 3c nor a 3a, then we will have to change the day to one of those days. We have our first two classes, then brake/snack, next is the Photo Booth for seventh and eighth graders and trick-or-treat but I only got two pieces of candy at school, then we have lunch, then reassess, then our last two classes, and lastly during X period we can do our homework, go trick-or-treating, fifth and sixth grade Photo Booth, or Halloween games and crafts. During X period I worked on my stop motion project. It’s for tech. And then it’s time to go to car pool or extend day.
What costumes did I see at school and Halloween night? What is my favorite candy?
Let’s talk about the other costumes that I saw at school first. My friend named Alice was dressed up as the Alice from Alice and Wonder Land. There were a bunch of people dressed up as bananas. A few of my friends were dressed up as preppy cow girls and they’re a preppy cow. My friend named Louisa was dressed up as one of Taylor Swift’s albums, 1989. Some people were dressed up as zombies and animals. Some people were dressed as characters from books, movies, shows, and/or video games. On Halloween night most of the people who go to DA were trick-or-treating on saint Marcs the most popular place to go trick-or-treating. Some people were dinosaurs, Elsa, unicorns, clowns, among us characters, and ect. It was the best Halloween ever! My friends and I had a blast but sometimes we would split up and some people went past the cone line but I’m glad that I saw them at school the next day. What’s my favorite candy? I don’t know. But my favorite types of candies are chocolate candies. Thanks for listening about the history of Halloween and what has happened recently.
It’s so cool that you were Zelda! It sounds like you had a really fun Halloween! I liked how informative your blog was!
I love all the photos you used to help explain the writing. I also really enjoyed reading your post it made me feel connected to the writing. I can’t believe you learned all of the at about Halloween. You must of put a lot of time and hard work into this post. I hope to hear more from you soon.