Halloween or “Castanyada”?
29/10/24Today some Petits Princeps were very happy because on Thursday it’s “Halloween”. It is very fun to wear costumes and go trick-or-treating but we do not know much about “Halloween”, though. We saw a video that was very eye-opening…
We thought that the Americans invented Halloween recently just to have fun but we discovered that, in fact, it is a very old tradition that has a long history. And, much more importantly, we discovered that “Halloween” and “Castanyada” have the same origin!
In ancient times, the Celts, a tribe that lived in Ireland and the United Kingdom, celebrated harvest time with a big meal they called “Samhain.” They also thought that, on the 31st of October, the separation between the world of the living and the world of the dead didn’t exist.
To avoid ghosts, people in Ireland started to dress up to protect themselves from bad spirits. They also left food outside the house to feed the ghosts and avoid them entering. These ancient traditions evolved with time and became the popular “Halloween” traditions that we know.
As somebody in class said “we celebrate the same (harvest and remembering the dead), but we do it in a different way”.
It was really very interesting! If you want to know more, just check the video!















