Halloween is a carnival festival of evil spirits, which more recently was widely celebrated only in the USA and Canada, and now gaining more and more popularity in Europe and Russia. In America, Halloween is considered the most massive after Christmas. Every year, Americans spend about $ 2.5 billion on Halloween.

Halloween (Halloween) – traditions and rituals

Halloween is a carnival festival of evil spirits, which more recently was widely celebrated only in the USA and Canada, and now gaining more and more popularity in Europe and Russia.

In America, Halloween is considered the most massive after Christmas. Every year, Americans spend about $ 2.5 billion on Halloween.

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Where does Halloween originate?

In the pre -Christian era of the land of modern England, Ireland and northern France, Celtic tribes inhabited. Their year consisted of two parts – summer and winter.

They were pagans and, as the supreme god, they revered the god of the sun, who, according to legend, was captured by Samhein – the Lord of the Dead and the Prince of Darkness during each winter.

On October 31, ancient Celts celebrated their main holiday – Samhain. It meant the end of the harvest and symbolized the end of the old and the beginning of the New Year. Samhein is a gate in the winter.

We are still inclined to perceive the winter with hostility. It seems that all living things are dying. Being pagans, the Celts believed in the origin of life from death, and the arrival of death was considered on this day as a arrival of life.

On the night of October 31 to November 1, the druis gathered in oak groves on the tops of the hills (the Celts considered oaks with sacred trees), lit bonfires and brought the victims to the evil spirits to propitiate them.

And in the mornings, the Druids gave people coals from their bonfires so that they fired the foci of their houses. The fire of the druids warmed the house for a long winter and guarded the house from evil spirits.

October 31 is time to lose the cargo of worries and pushes, accumulated over the summer and lost their meaning, following the example of trees that are freed from the leaves that have outlived their term.

After all, if the trees do not drop them, dead leaves will not give them the opportunity to come to life again in the spring. On October 31, the summer was replaced in winter, day – at night, life – death, and all the barriers between the material and supernatural worlds were eliminated, the gates between them opened for one night. The shadows of the deceased last year visit the Earth.

It was a day when disturbed perfumes, demons, goblins and other mystical creatures could come to the material world with the most ease: the brownies knock on the windows and doors, witches fly on a broomstick along the sky, the devils scare everyone. Supreme people are scared to go out on such a night.

For this, a special flashlight made of pumpkin was prepared. That is why people dressed in the same way as these creatures, and went home, asking for food for the peace of evil spirits. Finally, various fortune -telling were arranged in Samhein.

At the beginning of our era, the Romans won Celtic territory, bringing their traditions and holidays with them. On the night of October 31 to November 1, they celebrated the Day of Pomona – the goddess of plants.

In the 9th century, when Christianity spread in the UK, these ancient traditions mixed with another holiday – the Catholic day of all saints – All Hallows Even, or All Hallows Eve. Later it began to be called Hallowe`en, and in the end – Halloween.

Song about Halloween

Children of different ages
Leave his father’s shelter at an hour.
We now have one path –
In the kingdom of Halloween.
This is Halloween, this is Halloween,
Pumpkin dance between the ruins.
This is Halloween, death around and you are alone
Happy end is unimaginally.
Terrible fear and you are alone
In the Kingdom of Halloween.

– I am a bloodthirsty nightmare under the ottoman
Toothy, eyes and scary
– I am chilled under the steps in the afternoon
I crawl out in the darkness with a spider.

This is Halloween, this is Halloween,
Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!
Dream city, City Smoke
Called Halloween.
We are a guest
We always want
Surprise, so surprise.
Already to gray hair.
Ghouls are around here,
In every park around the corner
Some kind of freak or dwarf is waiting for you.

– City!
– Halloween!
– From the coffins.
– From quagmires.
– Scary, right?
– Iiihahaha!

You say once, say two
Here is the head from the shoulders,
You will be protruding with us – you won’t leave!
Crit, steal!
In the Kingdom of Halloween!

– I'm an evil clown with an empty head,
It seems to be funny, but just no
– Who is here, so who? This is just me
Cold in the chest, your paranoia.
– I will arise with a shadow against the background of the moon,

I fly with a mouse in your dreams.
This is Halloween, this is Halloween,
Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween!
It is hardly cooler to eat excitement
The victim is to give a heart attack.

– Just a service.
– Here she is

And dangerous and difficult.
Every time
Like the first time
Fainting with a guarantee
Let's send you.
Terrible Jack will take the right run
And it collapses on your head like the first snow.
THIS! Halloween!
Torches are hardened
The time has come
For the protagonist of the show –
Ghost Jack puts the show for many years
Salute, Jack, the lord of the pumpkins!
This is Halloween, this is Halloween,
Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, Halloween
Whirls, he howls his dear
For our homeland for our
Yes, even in a pool with a head.
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la lamim
Halloween!
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la lamim
Halloween!
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la lamim
Halloween!
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la lamimes
UIIII.

Song from a nightmare before Christmas (Tim Barton)

The traditions of Halloween

Other names of the holiday:

Samhein, Third Harvest, Samana, Day of the Dead, Old Hallowmas (Scottish/Celtic), Vigil of Saman, Shadowfest (Strega), and Samhuinn. ALSO KNOWN ALL HILLOW “SVE, (That Day Actually Falls on Novmber 7th), and Martinmas (That is Celebrated November 11th), Feast of Apple, Death Festival, November Christmas time.

Customs – ignition of bonfires, “apple games”, frightening costumes, fire spell, jokes, carved pumpkins, magic rituals of great power, burning stones.

Holy food – apples, red meat (beef, lamb), poultry, red wine (absinthe, mulled wine), root crops, climbing vegetables (pumpkins, peas, beans, tournament, Pasternak, etc.), nuts

Plants :Wormwood, clove pepper, oak leaves, rhizomes of mandragora, sage, straw, the sacred plant – full.

Symbols: Pumpkins, threshed cereal sheaves, Saturn, poisonous herbs, skulls, black cats and witches, tambourine, pomegranate, nuts, acorns.

The Celts believed that on New Year's Eve, the border between the worlds of the dead and the living opens.

In order not to fall prey to the dead shadow, people put out the fires in their houses and dressed up as scarily as possible – in animal skins and heads, hoping to scare away the ghosts that crawled across the open border.

If by October 31 you do not prepare apples, nuts, pebbles, as well as pumpkins, turnips or melons, then you will not be able to properly celebrate All Saints' Eve – Halloween, as it is called in England. Why apples on this holiday?

First, the peel from apples is also thrown into the fire. Then, according to the form that the peel takes, they try to determine the first letter of the name of their betrothed. In addition, they arrange a competition: apples are thrown into the water, and the players must try to pull them out. teeth!

At the same time, the hands are interlocked from behind so that they do not accidentally help their owner. After all, Halloween is also called the night of floating apples.

An integral symbol of Halloween is a pumpkin head.

The pumpkin symbolizes at the same time the end of the harvest, the evil spirit and the fire that scares it away. So strangely concentrated ancient beliefs in one subject.

One of the most famous Halloween traditions comes from Irish folklore. According to legend, the trickster and alcoholic Jack deceived the Devil, forcing him to climb a tree and drawing a cross on the trunk so that the Devil could not descend.

When Jack died, of course, he was not taken to heaven for all his sins, but he was not allowed into hell either because he outwitted the Devil himself. Jack was only given one glowing ember, designed to illuminate his further endless journey through the icy darkness.

This ember was placed in an empty gourd so that it would burn longer. Hence the Halloween tradition of carving a scary face out of a pumpkin and lighting candles inside it.

An indispensable attribute of Halloween is the rite Trik or trak (Dirty or gift). On this night, children knock on houses shouting: “Treat or trick!” – “Treat or regret it!”. If you don't make a sacrifice, these little evil demons can play cruel tricks on you, such as smearing soot on door handles.

Many leave food outside, often on the porch, for the souls of the dead.

At night, the girls guessed. You can throw two chestnuts into the fire of the druids. If the fruits burn nearby, then the girl will live in friendship and harmony with the sweetheart, if they roll in different directions, their paths will go in different directions.

A girl could see her future husband by sitting in front of a mirror at midnight with an apple in her hand. A fallen candlestick was considered the worst omen. “Evil spirits want to put out the fire in the house,” the Celts believed.

Let the fire burn in the fireplace all night, or a candle on the window. Some believe that you should not leave windows and doors open on this day, it brings misfortune. All trips must be completed by sunset.

If the clothes remained on the rope after the onset of darkness, strange forces will be instilled into it, because the one who put it on it will be enchanted in its path.

How to make a pumpkin lamp?

It is desirable that the pumpkin be large and orange.
A top of the pumpkin is cut off with a knife, and then the contents of the pumpkin (yellow, viscous mass) are extracted by all improvised means, whether it be a spoon, a knife or just hands.
The curettage and rtellation of the pumpkin continues until the internal walls of the pumpkin become perfectly clean.

Now from craftsmen you can go to creativity – draw your eyes, nose and toothy smirk. The sinister the physiognomy of your lamp turns out, the more evil spirits you can scare away from yourself at Halloween night. If you are satisfied with the pattern of the face, then the eyes, nose and mouth are cut out with a knife.

Finally, you place the burning candle inside the pumpkin and return the cut “scalp” to the same place. The lamp is ready.

Sacred food recipes:

• Take: 2 glasses of boiled pumpkin pulp (cook for 20 minutes)
• 1 cup of corn oil
• 3 \ 4 cups of water
• 4 eggs (whipped)
• 3 2 \ 3 cups flour
• 1 1 \ 2 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of dry yeast
• 2 1 \ 4 glasses of sugar
• 1 glass of white raisins
• 1 cup of interpreted walnut.

Placinda with pumpkin.

• Take: for the test – 350 grams of flour
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 2 \ 3 glasses of sour cream
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 \ 3 teaspoon of salt.
• For filling –
• 400 grams of pumpkin pulp
• Salt, sugar – to taste.

Preparation of the filling is a pumpkin grated on the grater, salt, let it stand, then add sugar.

Dough – add sour cream, oil, egg, salt, sugar to sifted flour. Knead, roll the dough into the ball and put in the cold for 30-40 minutes, covering with a napkin.

Then roll out a large cake, put the filling in the middle and combine the edges of the dough.
Oven at T – 200-220`C. Lubricate with oil.

• You will need:
• 1 1/2 cups of white flour
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp. food soda
• 1 tsp. Salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon of ginger powder
• 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/3 cups of melted butter
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup of molasses
• 1/2 cups of boiled water
• 1/2 cups of sugar powder for sprinkling

Mix flour, brown sugar, soda, salt, ginger and cinnamon. Wipe the oil evenly in flour. Beat milk, molasses and boiled water. Mix flour with a liquid mixture. Beat to the consistency of the cream. Pour into the captured, sprinkled with flour, a form with a diameter of 22 cm.

Heat the oven to high temperature. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce fire. Bake another 35 minutes until hardened and the appearance of cracks on the surface. Remove from the oven. Completely chopped with sugar powder.

Recipes of sacred wine

• Take: apple cider – 3 gallons (Gallon – 4.55l)
• Wormwood – big handful
• Pumpkin flowers (dried or fresh) – a handful
• Polodeous water – 1 cup.
• Yeast, cloves.

Brief recipe.

• Take: wormwood – 2 tablespoons
• Dry apples – 2 tablespoons
• Pumpkin flowers – 2 tablespoons.
• Pour 1 liter of port, leave for a week, strain, pour, adding 1 clove to the bottle.

Rituals

I. Ritual for liberation

1. Write on paper a feature of your character, from which you want to free yourself: anger, bad habits, fussiness, illness.

2. On the altar on this day, three brown candles are placed, symbolizing the wilting of vegetation, candles symbolize the god and the goddess of the holiday – Dagda and Morrigan.
Dagda is the father of everyone and represents the generosity of the crop.

Morrigan is a harbinger of death and represents empty fields.
Put apples, grenades, pumpkin, zucchini and other fruits and fruits on the altar, autumn flowers – such as nails and chrysanthemums. Pumplings from pumpkin are best placed on four cardinal points.

3. A cream or a similar tool should be installed on a refractory stand or small legs. On a small flat dish, draw a wheel with eight knitting needles. At a large plate, draw a circle along the edge. Put an end in the center and draw eight rays (clockwise) to the edge of it ..

So, you have a wheel – a symbol of a sabbat, a symbol of infinity. Sit calmly in front of the ritual and think about your friends and loved ones who are lost for you. But without despair. Know that they help you in your most difficult things. Think about the fact that the material world is not the only reality, and that the soul never dies.

4. Light 8 candles around the perimeter of the wheel and a censer (chickened). Make a circle of stones. Step by the song of blessings.

5. Provide the goddess and God.
Raise one of the grenades and cut a piece with a clean white dagger. Remove several grains and put on a dish with a drawn wheel. Take the rod, turn to the altar and say:
“That night, in Samhein, I celebrate your path,
Oh, the sunny king, the way to sunset,
In the country of eternal youth.
I mark the path of everyone who left
And everyone who comes.
Oh, beautiful goddess, eternal mother,
The one who gives birth to the fallen,
Teach me where during the great darkness
Find me the Great Light.

6. Put several grenade grains in your mouth, crush them with your teeth and feel the taste, bitter-sweet. Look at the eight -beam wheel on the plate, the annual wheel, the seasonal cycle, the end and the beginning of all things.

7. Grind the fire in the boiler or candle and tell me. Take the paper written by you. Looking into the fire, say:
“The wisest lord of the Usherbnaya Moon,
The goddess of star night.
I lit this flame in your boiler,
To change what torments me.
Turn the strength back:
From darkness to light!
From evil to good!
From death to life!

“I lit this flame
To change what torments me.
I turn the strength to the back,
From hatred of love!
From troubles to happiness!
From death to life!
This is my will
Let it be so!

8. Grin the paper in the flame of the boiler (or candles) and then throw it inside (burn it on a candle).

While she is on, know that your pain decreases and leaves you, as if burning in the universal flame. Freeze from pain and suffering, looking at the flame of the boiler. Work with magic, if necessary. Celebrate the treat. Remove the circle.

II. Sit in front of the ritual and think about the dead loved ones or friends. But without despair!

Put a lit candle on the window to indicate the path to them. Take several apples or ritual food to the street, which symbolically saturate the spirits.

Think about the fact that this world is not the only reality and the soul never dies. You can call on a person who is close to you by preparing his favorite food and raising the plate to say:

“I (we) invite you
Return home tonight
To divide with us again
The food that you loved during life.
Let this sign of my love
Update and refresh you
And let our meeting be joyful.
Lower the plate on the table and substitute the chair. Next, improvise, but do not forget to say goodbye after the spirit.

III. Decorate the altar with apples and grenades, autumn flowers. If you celebrate the room, spread mystical figures, it is better to place pumpkin lanterns on four cardinal points.

Fold, clean and charge a circle. Do not forget to bring your gifts to the spirits of the area and ask them about favor. In the circle, place the tambourine and everything you need for the ritual, since the charged circle cannot be left.

Light candles and call on the gods. I’ll make a reservation that, because, quite possibly, there is no person next to you who could lead the ritual, feel the real arrival of the creatures you called, it is better not to overdo it and make a call symbolically, turning to nature.
The next climb will help you feel the mood of the holiday and is not dangerous for beginners.

“The horned god of wild wasteland
The winged god of the sparkling sky,
The radiant god of the sparkling sun,
The fellow god Samheinov tears.
I appeal to you from the sacred circle.
I pray to you, O Ancient!
Down and sanctify my mystical rite
A wonderful lord of the burning sun!

IY. Typically, pagans also turn to the goddess, who has many guises, it is Earth, Nature, Night, Moon. All this is implied when you call on the goddess.

The call should also go from the heart, convey your love for the world and all nature in your appeal. Mages also urge the gods of four elements, the patrons of the day and bring them gifts.

Raise grenade and a pain (ritual knife with a white handle), cut a piece. Take out a few grains and put on the altar.
You can say the following words:
“That night, to Samhein,
We celebrate your path
The Dark God, the Way to Sunset
In the country of great darkness.
We celebrate the path of everyone who left,
And everyone who comes.
Oh, great goddess, eternal mother
The one that gave birth to the fallen!
Teach us how to find the way
Home.

Put several grains in your mouth, bit them out and taste them.We will all leave this world, but only in order to revive in another world. Think about the annual wheel, seasonal cycles – the end and beginning of all things.

Y. If you want, you can guess the magical crystal Or apply other forms of fortune telling, because this is the best time to look into the past or future. Guess on the maps, throw the runes and predict what the upcoming 12 months will be.

Yi. A very interesting effect of changing time and space will create a game on a tambourine or drum and immersion in ISS. To do this, you need to sit in a circle, you can also put the music with a must -be cyclical, repeating (there are special song spells for each holiday).

Playing on a tambourine, in absolute silence, you will gradually move to the Shaman trance that will allow you to feel unprecedented things. After that, you can just be silent and feel this extraordinary holiday, this wonderful night. You can also light incense that will strengthen the depth of trance.

After the ritual, drink wine or any other liquid. Taste of sacred food.

An important part of Samhein's celebration is masks and costumes To create a spiritual connection with the deity or the spirit of nature. The mask and suit must be carefully planned. The spiral dance is also associated with the holiday, representing the eternal cycle of death and revival.

The custom of Samhein is “Apple Game”. Apples, like Iva and Mirta, are associated with love and death. Tie the apple on the thread and, holding your hands behind your back, try to eat it. Or put the fruits in a basin with water and get them. With the help of apples on Samhein, they were guessed on a narrowed (narrowed).

Cut the apple into 9 equal parts, eat 8, and throw the ninth over the left shoulder. Then, quickly looking around, out of the corner of your eye you can notice the future narrowed (narrowed).
If you have experience, you can do communication with perfumes or work with a magic mirror (ball or boiler with water).

Experiment. A good holiday for you!

At the end, do not forget to say goodbye to the gods, destroy the circle and remove all traces of your stay if the ritual was made on the street. Warriors leave no traces!