萬圣節(jié)由來
Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige of some ancient pagan ritual?
Halloween is one of the oldest holidays with origins going back thousands of years. The holiday we know as Halloween has had many influences from many cultures over the centuries. From the Roman's Pomona Day, to the Celtic festival of Samhain, to the Christian holidays of All Saints and All Souls Days.
Hundreds of years ago in what is now Great Britain and Northern France, lived the Celts. The Celts worshipped nature and had many gods, with the sun god as their favorite. It was "he" who commanded their work and their rest times, and who made the earth beautiful and the crops grow.
The word itself, "Halloween," actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption of All Hallows Eve. November 1, "All Hollows Day" (or "All Saints Day"), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year.
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One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.
Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.
Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.
Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk these stories as myth.
The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.
The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.
關(guān)于萬圣節(jié)由來的，傳說最多的版本認(rèn)為，那是源于基督誕生前的古西歐國(guó)家，主要包括愛爾蘭、蘇格蘭和威爾士。這幾處的古西歐人叫德魯伊特人。德魯伊特的新年在十一月一日，新年前夜，德魯伊特人讓年輕人集隊(duì)，戴著各種怪異面具，拎著刻好的蘿卜燈，他們游走于村落間。
這里要說明一下，南瓜燈是后期習(xí)俗，因?yàn)楣盼鳉W最早沒有南瓜。這在當(dāng)時(shí)實(shí)則為一種秋收的慶典；也有說是“鬼節(jié)”，傳說當(dāng)年死去的人，靈魂會(huì)在萬圣節(jié)的前夜造訪人世，據(jù)說人們應(yīng)該讓造訪的鬼魂看到圓滿的收成并對(duì)鬼魂呈現(xiàn)出豐盛的款待。所有篝火及燈火，一來為了嚇走鬼魂，同時(shí)也為鬼魂照亮路線，引導(dǎo)其回歸。
在中世紀(jì)的中歐，曾有過基督教摧毀異教徒的歷史。可是新年夜前的祭祀慶典從未真正消除，不過以巫術(shù)的形式出現(xiàn)。這也就是為什么我們現(xiàn)在的萬圣節(jié)里，還留有巫婆的掃帚、黑貓、咒語(yǔ)等痕跡。下面再說說Halloween一詞的產(chǎn)生：很多民族都在萬圣節(jié)前夜有慶典聚會(huì)，這又被叫做“All Hallow E'en”、“The Eve of All Hallows”、“Hallow e'en”，或者“The eve of All Saintas' Day”。最終約定俗成演變成了“Halloween”，中文意譯成了萬圣節(jié)之夜。
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