(493) Halloween 2018

(493) Halloween 2018

pic. Halloween on cup

(1) What is Halloween?
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
The evening of October 31 observed esp. by children merrymaking and masquerading.

Oxford Advanced learner’s dictionary:
31 October, the eve of All Saints’ Day.

The Random House Dictionary:
The evening of October 31, celebrated by children as merrymaking festival.

Pic. JA Saisaikiteya market at Imabari

Longman Active Study Dictionary 5^th edition:
The night of October 31, when children dress as WITCHES, GHOSTS etc.

Pic. Halloween Mask

The Charlie Brown Dictionary (1973):
Halloween is the last night in October. On this holiday some children wear masks like Charlie Brown’s. Others wear funny clothes like Lucy’s.
?The kids come to the door and say, “Trick or treat.”
?If they don’t get a treat like a candy, they will play a trick on the people who didn’t give them something good to eat. Now most kids gather money on Halloween for poor children all over the world.

Pic. Charlie Brown and Lucy

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/halloween?s=t
The evening of October 31: the eve of All Saints’s Day; Allhallows Eve: observed especially by children in costumes who solicit1) treats, often by threatening minor pranks2).?
?1) solicit: ask for,
?2) prank: playful or mischievous acts

(2) Historical Examples?of?Halloween
Armour's Monthly Cook Book, Volume 2, No. 12, October 1913

Pic. Armour’s Monthly Cook Book

Halloween
? ?The date of this oldtime celebration is always October 31st, the crucial moment 12 o'clock. To be sure, the original observance of All Hallows Eve has been considerably distorted during the course of years but the fun it affords the young folks in its present manner of keeping cannot be gainsaid1) and needs no changing. Halloween is the night when a magic spell enthrals2) the earth. Witches, bogies, brownies and elves are all abroad to use their power. Superstition proves true, witchery is recognized and the future may be read in a hundred and one ways.
(1)?gainsay: deny or dispute
(2)?enthrall: hold spellbound

(3) Word Origin and History for Halloween
c.1745, Scottish shortening of Allhallow-even “Eve of All Saints, last night of October” (1550s), the last night of the year in the old Celtic calendar, where it was Old Year‘s Night , a night for witches. A pagan1) holiday given a cursory2) baptism and sent on its way. See hallow; also cf. hallows.
(1) pagan: heathen, uncivilized or godless person
(2) cursory: hastily done, lacking in depth, solidity, and comprehesiveness
(Online Etymology Dictionary, 2010 Douglas Harper)

pic. Halloween at Towel Museum
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