SeanV
Reistera
Dia de los muertos....one of my favorite holidays...To expand on what oblivious said, family members of the deceased leave offerings of favorite foods and objects of the deceased on the grave. They also clean up the grave and decorate it with all sort of trinkets and a specific yellow carnation (i forget what it's called). They then make a trail of petals of the yellow carnation back to their house. This is so the spirit of the deceased can find their way back to the house. Inside the house, the family sets up a kind of alter in memory of the deceased. They cover it with favorite things, pictures, and favorite things of the deceased, as well as skulls and toy skeletons, (some of the skulls and skeltons are even made of sugar!)
I could seriously go on for hours....
sweatdrop please go on, I'd love to learn more.
The big deal about halloween is that on that day the curtain between this world and the underworld becomes thin, and sometimes ripped.
The reason why the veil between worlds is so thin on Halloween, which in ancient times was known as Samhain or All Hallows Eve is that our European ancestors lived in an agricultural society where the year was measured from one harvest to the next. Since Halloween was typically the last day for the harvest to be gathered, it marked the end of the year in many western European cultures.
To our Pagan ancestors, boundaries were places where the walls between worlds were thin--where ghosts, faerie folk, and spirits could enter our world. As an example, this is why crossroads had mystical significance: they were a boundary between one place and the next. Times such as the equinoxes and solstices were also when the walls between worlds could be crossed as well as sunrise, sunset, noon, and midnight--which is why many spells and rituals were performed at that time.
Since Samhain marked the boundary between one year and the next, it became the time when the walls between worlds were easily breached--hence the reason why so many cultures believed that the dead walked the world on that night.
domokun The custom of wearing costumes on Halloween originated with the idea that if you disguised yourself as a ghost or denizen of the spirit world, the supernatural entities who were abroad on that night would either believe you to be one of them (and leave you alone) or would be so frightened by the costume that they would leave you alone.
eek The jack-o-lantern served a similar purpose: hideous and scary faces were carved on hollowed-out turnips or gourds and placed around the property to frighten away malevolent or mischevious spirits.
domokun As for feasting and drinking on Halloween night, the reason is quite simple: if you had an abundance of food and were afraid that it might go to waste or not be stored for the Winter, you would invite the neighbors over and have a feast to share the food that could not be preserved.
The practice of what we now call "trick or treating" came from the practice of peasants and beggars putting on costumes and begging for food; since no one knew whether they were people or creatures of the supernatural masquerading as humans, they were given food to make them go away--and even if the costumed folk were human, who would want masked revelers playing malicious pranks on you or your property?
Of course, if you want to know about a really interesting tradition on Halloween that still survives in Mexico, Appalachia, and a number of places in Europe, ask me sometime about the Dumb Supper...
Reply
![[x]Living Dead Girl[x]'s avatar](https://a1cdn.gaiaonline.com/dress-up/avatar/ava/03/84/b778e9448403_flip.png?t=1482985939_6.00_01&a=1&i=10017763&s=stand&f=front)
