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Cultural festivals day of the dead
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Samhain
Samhain is on Oct. 31st in the Northern Hemisphere.
Samhain is on May 1st in the Southern Hemisphere.
Similar celebrations on or around those dates are Day of the Dead, Halloween, Reformation Day, and All Saint's Day, Feast of Apples, All Hallows Eve.
Samhain marks the end of Summer, the time to prepare for Winter, and the pagan New Year celebration when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest. This is also a time to honor deceased ancestors and it is thought that they return to visit us on this night. This is also a time to say goodbye to things and people no longer in our life. Historically, this was a time to slaughter livestock to store adequate food for the coming Winter season. For Wiccans, Samhain is the beginning
These holidays were May Day and All Fool’s Day. May Day was celebrated on may first. May Day was a summer festival celebrating when the queen of May was chosen and villagers dance around the maypole, which was a pole decorated with flowers and ribbon. During this holiday, the king and queen were called Robin Hood and Maid Marian. All Fool’s Day was another Elizabethan holiday that was celebrated on April first. All Fool’s Day was the Jesters, or Lords of Misrules Day. The took charge for the day and caused chaos with jokes and jests. Everything was backwards on this day, all rules became
Halloween is originated from Ireland, and Day of the Dead was started in Mexico. During Halloween, people usually have various types of candies. Kinds of candies include chocolate, caramels, sugar candies, gummy candies, and much more. On Day of the Dead, Calaveras and pan de los muertos is served, along with many other candies in shapes of coffins, skulls, and skeletons. The symbol for Halloween is the classic jack o’ lantern. Back in the Middle Ages, ritual harvest festival in Welsh, Irish and Gaelic cultures. They were used to guide trick or treaters through the night and keep way evil spirits. Not all the jack o’ lanterns were pumpkins. Some were made out of radishes or squash. The symbol Day of the Dead is the classic skull or skeleton. If you went to a Day of the Dead celebration, you would see happy skeletons on display practically everywhere across city streets. Another important symbol of the Day of the dead is the marigold flower. It is said that the flower draws back to souls of the dead and leads item to the homes of their families. Believe it or not, Halloween is a holiday that is nearly 1300 years old, and it originates from Welsh and Gaelic cultures. It was a holiday evolved from the Samhain, an ancient Celtic holiday. This was a time where the harvests were collected for the winter, and it was believed that since winter was approaching, it would allow the souls of the dead to breach tohe world of the living.
With the end of October and the beginning of November, two historically celebrated holidays come to pass. Each holiday has been celebrated for centuries, and each one continues to have a large impact on society. Interestingly, they developed in two separate civilizations from different hemispheres and occur around the same time. The two distinct holidays of Halloween and Day of the Dead both share similar origins and a focus on spiritual aspects and yet have still remained unique celebrations that continue to largely impact culture.
Beltane, and its counterpart Samhain, divide the year into its two primary seasons, winter (Dark Part) and summer (Light Part). As Samhain is about honouring Death, Beltane is about honouring Life. It is the time when the sun is fully released from his bondage of winter and able to rule over summer and life once again.
When someone hears, “New Orleans,” they immediately think of Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is a tradition that can survive, and thrive, no matter what the circumstances. Take, for example, after Hurricane Katrina hit the city, there was much argument as to whether or not to even have the celebration, but many of the citizens were in favor of it, with one of them saying, “it’s what New Orleans spirit is all about,” (Mitchell, 791). Among those who were in favor of keeping with traditions after the decimation of their city were The Mardi Gras Indians. A group of people who wish to pay homage to their ancestors, they dress up in ceremonial garb and parade around the city. The Mardi Gras Indians are an important part of not only the Mardi Gras celebrations, though, they also play a part in New Orleanian culture as a whole, as exemplified by the study of social, economic, and cultural patterns that are closely associated with them.
"It took the city of New Orleans to transform the centuries-old celebration of Mardi Gras into America's Greatest Party" (Hardy). Mardi Gras is known for being one of the many extravagant celebrations of Fat Tuesday that occur all over the world. However, this holiday was not always celebrated in this fashion. Many traditions that occur today, specifically in New Orleans, Louisiana, are “updated” or “revised” versions of original traditions.
Many times when we hear the word Rede we automatically jump to the Wiccan Rede, however the word Rede has been around much longer.
Mardi Gras is a holiday that is celebrated all around the world. Louisiana is the only state that consider Mardi Gras a legal holiday. In Louisiana, New Orleans is one of the best to celebrate this busy holiday. Mardi Gras is not just a day of celebration, it has it’s own full season of activities and religious events. New Orleans is the place to be for Mardi Gras with the wonderful history, come-back celebrations, and hard working people that have made the seasons in the past ones to remember.
Easter celebrations were not new; it had been celebrated by pagans for thousands of years before the birth of Christ Jesus. This pagan festival “Easter/ Ishtar” originated from a religious celebration to the pagan “Queen of Heaven”, Goddess Ishtar. She represented fertility and life. (Jeremiah 7: 17-20) These festivals were filled with sexual overtones and ungodly indulgences.
What is Hanukkah? Hanukkah is a Jewish festival, lasting eight days from the 25th day of Kislev and commemorating the rededication of the Temple in 165 BC by the Maccabees after its desecration by the Syrians. It is marked by the successive kindling of eight lights. In Hanukkah it is a way to celebrate the rededication during the second century B.C. of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, where according to legend Jews had risen up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt. Hanukkah is also a celebration kind of like a Jewish Christmas, but a different meaning. Christmas is the celebration of Jesus being born the Messiah where in Judaism, Jesus is not to be believed to be the Messiah. The Messiah is the Savior, but
The seven Jews celebrate seven important holidays throughout the year. These holidays represent occasions where God steered the Jews down the right path. These holidays include Shabbat, Purim, Passover, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah, Rosh Hashana, and Shavuot. These holidays come around every year. They all involve their own ceremonies and customs. Jews all around the world take part in the festivities. More importantly, these holidays depict how and why people of Jewish value these celebrations.
Day of the Dead has interesting traditions. On November 2nd, the Day of the Dead, people celebrate their dead loved ones. They celebrate in the cemeteries,clean the headstones, decorate the sites with flowers, and bring music and food. The petals of a marigold native to Mexico are spread from the cemetery to the altar in the house so that they can find their way to the house. (Betteley,Pat.”La dia de los muertos”.) Halloween also has interesting
The Pharisees were mad at Jesus for working on the Sabbath day. They said people were supposed to rest because it was God's rule. But Jesus tried to explain to them that sometimes you just have to break the rules. If people are hungry on the Sabbath day and need food, is it better to starve or to break the rule and go out in the fields to get food? He and his disciples were hungry, and they went out into the farm fields to get some grub.
The Bible was written over 1600 years (1500 AD, 100 AD) over 40 people inspired by God. In 2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is inspired by God." Therefore, God is the ultimate author of the Bible. The writers of the Bible made scrolls of sheep's skin or plants called papyrus, which grows on the Nile, to record it.
Easter is amongst the biggest religious holidays celebrated, through a survey about Easter 1,000 adults from across the United States of America that participated in this random telephone study sixty-seven percent saw Easter as a religious holiday, forty-two percent associated it with Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, only thirteen percent cannot even begin to describe what Easter is or means, while eight percent says Easter means nothing to them at all. This study was conducted in the month March by a group named Barna (Shepson). What Easter is known to be today is not what it was originally known as back in the days. Easter use to be a festival that celebrated an ancient Greek goddess Eostre in which she would be the one to end the cold winters with a warm and sunny spring. This festival usually took place of March 21st, those who took part in celebrating believed that they must satisfy this goddess to guarantee that she will coming back in the years to come. The festivities included extremely extensive meals that are welcoming the common events that come about in this season, flourishing of plants, sweet songs of birds, and most of all the renewal take place within nature. The Council of Nicaea had changed this to be the holiday that’s sole purpose is to celebrate the resurrection of their dear savior Jesus Christ. They had even changed the date, though Easter is not celebrated on the same exact date every year it is celebrated as early as March 22nd and even as late as April 25th but always lands on a Sunday. The entire concept of Easter was changed from being a festival of thanksgiving to a Greek goddess to being the day a God’s son in the flesh...