Celebrating Halloween – We Scare because We Care. Story by RUNWAY MAGAZINE. Photo Courtesy: Halle Berry, Jean Paul Gaultier, Kim Kardashian, Lizzo, Hermes.
Tradition
The word “Halloween” comes from All Hallows’ Eve and means “hallowed evening.”
The history of Halloween dates back to a Celtic festival called Samhain.
Hundreds of years ago people dressed up as saints and went door-to-door, which is the origin of Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating.
The word “hallow” came from the Middle ages and Old English word “holy”, or “saint”. Christian holiday we know as All Saints’ Day or All Souls’ Day was called back in the days All Hallows’ Day. The Celtic harvest holiday of Samhain was the time to honors ancestors and spirits, and involved a lot of ritualistic ceremonies to connect to spirits, as the Celts were polytheistic. Samhain means “end of summer” – a harvest period when living share the fruits of their work with spirit realm. One of the original purposes for Halloween was to take some of the bounty from your harvest and to share it with others, your ancestors and spirits. So basically getting dressed as spirits and collect the bounty was about great care for ancestors and spirits.
Celts celebrated this holiday in the costumes served as a disguise imitating ghosts, enjoyed special feasts with them, and made lanterns by hollowing out gourds (hence, the history of jack-o’-lanterns).
This time was not just the way to connect to the past, and relatives but also looking into the feature. Fortune-telling games, mirror-gazing games, bobbing apple games, and many others allowed see the glimpses of the feature as “the veil between the spirit realm and the living was at its thinnest”. This “think air” according to the beliefs allowed spirits and other supernatural forces to descend and cause mischief or harm. To the ancient Celts, people were transformed into cats as a punishment for their bad deeds.
Many young women especially believed that Halloween was the best day for divination and would often seek out fortune tellers to find out the names of their future husbands. Apple bobbing game was the primary game. This mashup of traditions and beliefs across millennia led to witches becoming a symbol of a Halloween celebrating the macabre.
Halloween 2022
This year like any other year celebration and the Halloween holiday took fashion and music words by storm. Celebrities, fashion designers posted photos of themselves being dressed and celebrating. We collected the most fabulous costumes shown at this Hallow eve.
