"Halloween's Scary Fairies"

How Did Halloween Begin?

• With the Celts who lived in Ireland over 2000 years ago
• It was an end of Summer holiday called Samhain

Samhain was a time when cattle and sheep were brought into closer pastures and food was stored for the winter.

Samhain Eve

• The Celts believed the ghosts of the dead walked the earth as they crossed to the underworld and that fairies and demons came out of hiding,.
• They feared them especially at night

Irish Fairies

• tiny but could change size and shape
• danced and had beautiful music
• bad tempers
• On Samhain Eve they might be in the fields dancing with ghosts or playing pranks.
• If you upset them they could spoil your crops, bring nasty weather or kidnap you to Fairy Land!

How they protected themselves on Samhain Eve

• Wore a scary mask if they left their house so the golbins would think you were one of them.
• Left sweets out to keep the fairies and goblins well fed
• Marched in a freaky parade with their costumed neighbors hoping to lead the spirits out of their village.

As hundreds of years passed, missionaries in Ireland turned this pagean holiday into a Christian festival honoring the sacred dead and called it All Saints Day. The night before this Holiday became called Halloween.

Halloween Today...

• Halloween became popular in the USA when Irish immigrants came in the late 19th century.
• We spend this day having scary fun not hiding from fairies.
• But we do many of the orginal traditions like making jack o -lanterns but we are not making them to keep the spirits away!