Millions of people in different parts of the world annually celebrate Halloween - the eve of All Saints Day or Samhain. This holiday is especially popular in the UK, Scandinavia and the USA. From year to year in the fall, old and young participate in entertainment specially prepared for this evening, associated with a mass of ridiculous superstitions. Children dress up in unusually scary costumes and put on ugly masks. With bags in their hands, they walk from house to house, frightening with their appearance both children and adults. According to custom, they need to be given gifts, otherwise, they can cause harm to the house or the owner.
According to some reports, the Druids believed that Samhain (the god of the dead) convened evil spirits that lived in animal bodies over the past year. Other pagan peoples believed that this evening all the spirits of the deceased over the past year visited their homes, and therefore tables were set for them and doors remained open out of fear - if the spirits did not find food and shelter, they could cruelly avenge those living for such inattention to them. All sorts of sacrifices were also common this evening.
Among the northern peoples, the holiday began on the eve of November 1. It was believed that the souls of good people after death are carried away by good spirits to paradise, and the souls of evil people remain to roam in the skies. They bother the living and therefore need to be coaxed at least once a year.
In Britain, according to pagan custom, bonfires are lit on Halloween, although the fire itself has nothing to do with prayers for the dead. In pagan times, evil spirits and witches were driven away by fire, and to this day, bonfires and burning candles are an indispensable part of Halloween.
In Ireland, there is a belief that there are seeds on Samhain - magical hills, the home of small folk. The little people, as they call it in later legends, are the people of Danu, or the subjects of Manannan, the ruler of the island of apples. There are many legends about people who came to him, and not only on the night of Samhain.
According to other legends, the seeders are burial mounds, and that night those buried in them rebel, arrange feasts and other events, in general, they behave extremely restlessly.
Samhain rituals relate mainly to family affairs, especially elderly relatives or those who are sick or need constant care; they provide physical security, help to overcome fears, to expel psychological and mental ghosts.
Samhain is a natural transition from one stage of life to another. This is the day of commemoration of the deceased and reminding the young of the traditions of the past.
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