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| 10-25-17 |
Halloween in Russia: the history and traditions of the holiday for Russian Girls |
In 2017, Halloween is no longer associated with Christian saints, but with the pagan belief that this night blurrs the boundaries between the worlds.
For Russian Women, Halloween is a relatively new holiday. In fact, its history goes back to ancient times. For many, Halloween is associated with the rampage of all kinds of wickedness, but in fact this holiday was originally very much a Puritan one.
The present Halloween is a modified holiday of the ancient Celtic holiday called Samhain. It occured because the Celts, who divided the year into two equal halves, considered the first period, from May to October, to be kind and bright, and the period from November to April was cold and, accordingly, a time of evil and darkness. The night from October 31 to November 1 was a frontier between these two stretches of the year. By the way, the night from April 30 to May 1, called Walpurgis nights that is a mirror reflection of Samain, when good and light are supposedly returning to earth.
According to the views of the Celts on the night of Samhain, an invisible door opened between our world and the world of spirits through which the deceased relatives could visit their living descendants.
But with them, all sorts of evil spirits could penetrate into the world of people. And the Celts took many measures to protect themselves and their homes from all these monsters: they gathered at the fires with their druid priests, sacrificed their pagan gods, put on themselves animal skins to scare off evil spirits, brought fire to the houses from the sacred fire ...
To Russia and Ukraine Halloween came in the 90s, and it has not yet managed to develop traditions similar to those that exist in Europe or America, where Halloween has been celebrated for centuries.
Nevertheless, in nightclubs that russian girls attend Halloween-party is held on the night of November 1st. The presence of a costume at such parties is welcomed. Required attributes are also pumpkin lanterns. |
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