Most of us are at least a tiny superstitious sometimes. We may have lucky clothes that we wear to a job interview, or a lucky food that we eat before our football team plays. Holidays are a time for superstitions too, and when the holiday in quiz, is Halloween, there are as many superstitions surrounding the holiday as there are ghosts and gremlins searching for tasty treats.
Superstitious Traditions
Halloween
There are a lot of unique Halloween traditions that families follow, from putting up jack-o-lanterns to dressing up in costumes that are either funny or scary. What many of these families don't realize is that these traditions are based on superstition. From some familiar Halloween practices, the superstitions go back for centuries.
Take the jack-o-lantern, for instance. There is probably no more well known symbol of Halloween than a pumpkin with a face carved in it. History shows that the act of carving faces into vegetables has been going on for centuries - turnips were a popular option in the Middle Ages. While many did this as a easy form of recreation, others did it to scare away evil spirits. The idea behind putting a candle inside the jack-o-lantern meant that it was an efficient way to repel these spirits at night as well.
Many families and other large groups enjoy holding bonfires while the Halloween season, as the weather is commonly just starting to cool down sufficient to make sitting by a fire enjoyable. The bonfire was a major part of the Celtic festival of Simhain, one of the predecessors to today's Halloween holiday. Simhain was held to commemorate the end of the farming season and the return of winter, and as part of a spiritual cleansing ritual, the Celts would often light two bonfires side by side. Families would then walk in between the pair of bonfires, often with their livestock.
Good Luck, Bad Luck
Many superstitions surrounding Halloween include the presence of omens to foretell the events of the following year. Many habitancy claim to be able to predict the time to come by staring solidly into a candle on Halloween night. Candles play an leading role in many Halloween superstitions because they supply light when a person might otherwise be subject to mysterious troops in the dark of the night. Some habitancy insist on burning brand new candles for Halloween and then not using them again, since reusing a Halloween candle is carefully bad luck.
Not all superstitions are centered colse to candles, however. Practically any typical Halloween creature, from a bat to a spider to a black cat, has been said to predict bad luck for the person who sees them. A popular superstition to bring good luck to your home is to walk backwards colse to your house three times as the sun is setting on Halloween, though it is never explained exactly how this works.
The superstition with the most truth behind it, however, is that wearing a great Halloween costume will get you or your child a lot of attention. You don't have to look for lucky charms or scary omens to make this superstition come true, though - a Halloween costume and a obvious attitude are the only things you will need.
Halloween Superstitions
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