History of Adam and Eve Just Before Halloween

Just before this pagan holiday known as Halloween, it may be a strange time to think about marriage and relationships. However, there seems to be some confusion concerning marriage in our modern day. "Mother of all living" was the first human woman and we call her name Eve, not Lilith as some believe. Lillith in Judiasm means" a type of demon". Lilith was the first wife of Adam in the Wicca religion and she did not exist. G_d created this Universe and called it all good. He separated Night from Day and made the stars. Then He created each creatures. Adam was created to rule ove all of the creatures, take care of this earth, and name them. billions of years ago. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was real and the serpent was just a snake that talked.

Back then, serpents were powerful and had legs. G_d made humans in His image. He consorted with the Dieties and did not want mankind to live forever.That one tree would open their understanding to good and evil so G_d said do not eat of it. The woman, Eve was alone with this snake and he beat her up. G_d was angry with Adam for not protecting her. Both of the humans, including the snake were punished. Female humans mated with dieties also and Adam and Eve had sons and daughters. This is the month for many wedding anniiversies. I married a man, not a woman. If I had married a woman, I could not ever birth children. Then what would become of the human race? For me personally, calling perversion a "life-style" is wrong. I do not judge those who choose this way of life, for it is not my sin. All have sin, which is separation from G_d. All of us think we know G_d, but we are only living mortals who need some direction to seek Him. G_d is so Holy, if He came to me, it would be like the Sun coming to my face. He speakes in thunder and drives the winds. Who could face Our L_ord alone?

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Once in history, He was sorrowful that He created mankind as they had become very wicked, so He made it rain 40 days and nights all over this globe. Everything that had breath died from drowning.This was the story of Noah"s Ark. Noah found favor with G_d so He and his family and the creatures survived the great flood. G_d gave a rainbow in the sky to show humans he would honor His promise not to destroy this earth with water again. His Holy word says the next time it will be with fire. All die and nobody is good enough to get to The One true Holy G_d whose seal is Truth. He is the only judge and He looks upon our hearts. If I put Him first, no matter what, my life will count for something good. Because as mortals, we can die at any time. Christians accept Jesus into their hearts to be born again.

Brenda Kay Winters Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brenda_K_Winters

History of Halloween in America

As immigrants to America began to arrive from Europe, they brought along many of their beliefs and customs and one of these was Halloween. During the colonial days, the celebration was limited due to the rigid Protestant ways of the early settlers.

However, the southern colonies and Maryland held the customs of various ethnic groups from Europe including the beliefs held by the Native American Indians. All of these beliefs began to join and create a new American version of Halloween.

The first American Halloween celebrations seen were parties that were held to celebrate the harvest. During these get togethers, neighbors would share stores of their departed loved ones or others they knew, would tell the future of those that wished to know, along with singing and dancing. The trend for Halloween in the beginning days of its creation were mainly centered on ghost telling and mischief.

During the middle of the 19th century, autumn celebrations were commonplace; however, Halloween was not celebrated throughout America.

During the 1800's more immigrants came to America, especially in 1846 when Ireland had the infamous potato famine. With these new immigrants came other Halloween traditions. At this time, Americans everywhere began to dress up in various costumes to go door to door to ask for money or food. This was the beginning of what we know as "trick or treating".

Traditions and beliefs emerged such as young women believed doing special tricks with apple parings, mirrors, or yarn they would learn the name of their future husband as long as these tricks were done on Halloween night.

By the late 1800's, Halloween was more about the community gathering for fun instead of the witchcraft, ghost stories, and pranks of yesteryear. The early 1900's brought about Halloween parties for both children and adults and was the most popular way in which to celebrate this holiday. The parties were centered on the food, games, and of course brightly colored costumes instead of the ghosts and ghouls. Even the local newspapers pushed Americans into taking out anything scary from all of their Halloween celebrations, thus the superstitions and ghost stories were fast becoming a thing of the past.

As the 1920's rolled in, Halloween had transformed more into a public holiday whereas communities would hold parties, parades, and everyone would dress up in costumes, Vandalism however, was a huge problem during the 1920's and 1930's despite all community efforts to have a fun filled night.

During the 1950's vandalism was under control, but the holiday was now geared to the children. During this time, trick or treating was more popular that had been while increasing from the 1920's. The idea behind the trick or treating at this time was that neighbors could avoid the tricks and vandalism by presenting the children with treats, thus the origin of the name.

Today, Halloween is celebrated in many different ways across America with trick or treating the main fun for children. On the other hand, schools, churches, and neighborhoods also have celebrations to bring children into a safe environment instead of going door to door due to parents finding harmful items in the candy of previous years such as razor blades.

Chad Hosrtman is an expert on Halloween and all great costumes available. To learn more about the great costumes available visit Sexy Halloween Costumes - Children's Halloween Costumes, and Women's Deluxe Costumes.

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History of Halloween

Most people think of Halloween today as simply a day when children dress up in costumes and go from home to home to "trick or treat" and collect enough candy to make any parent cringe. Halloween was much more significant in ancient times, however. October 31st was a very important day to the ancient Celts of Ireland, Scotland and Great Britain. No kidding around in costumes and trick or treat bags; Halloween was much more serious to the non-Christian Cults a thousand years ago.

Halloween remains a popular day in the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Ireland, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Children get to dress up in their favorite costumes and ring doorbells throughout their neighborhood to collect as much candy as possible. In the United States' Halloween is the second most popular holiday (after Christmas) for decorating and reaps a huge financial bounty of retail selling of frightening costumes to children and adults alike, decorations and candy. But for eons, the history of Halloween encompased ancient beliefs about the world - both living and dead.

Understanding the history of Halloween can perhaps help you decide what to let your children take part in, and what to keep your children away from. Also, knowing the origin of Halloween and its history can also help Christians view the adult, youth, and child activities associated with Halloween celebrations in the light of Christ's truth.

What Is The History of Halloween?
Halloween originated among the Irish Celts, Scots and Anglo-Saxons in Britain long before the Christian era. Originally called Samhain, it was a time when they believed the division between the worlds of the living and the dead became very thin and when ghosts and spirits were free to wander as they wished. The name "Halloween" is a shorter form for the Gaelic name All-hallow-evening. Pope Boniface IV instituted All Saints' Day in the 7th century as a time to honor saints and martyrs, replacing the pagan festival of the dead. In 834, Gregory III moved All Saint's Day to Nov. 1, thus making Oct. 31 All Hallows' Eve ('hallow' means 'saint').

On the night of Samhain, it was believed spirits of the restless dead and mischievous spirits would freely roam about with humans and during this one night spirits were able to make contact with the physical world as their magic was at its height. The Celts believed that by allowing the dead to have access to the world on this one evening, they would be satisfied to return to the land of the dead. The Celtic people would put out food offerings to appease the spirits who might inflict suffering and violence on them and Celtic priests would offer sacrifices, animal and human, to the gods for the purpose of chasing away the evil, frightening spirits. They built fires where they gave sacrifices to the Celtic deities to ensure protection from the dead spirits. Samhain was also a time when it was customary for the pagans to use the occult practice of divination to determine the weather for the coming year, the crop expectations, and even who in the community would marry whom and in what order.

When Rome took over their land, the Samhain was integrated with two other Roman festivals: Feralia and a festival to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. By the time Christianity come on the scene, Halloween had already taken root from the pagan beliefs and was integrated into Christian practices. As the Europeans found their way to the New World, they brought with them their traditions which soon evolved to fit their new country.

Many customs still observed today come from these ancient beliefs. For example, the elaborately carved jack-o-lantern is said to have been named after the Irish story of a greedy, hard-drinking gambling man, Stingy Jack, who tricked the Devil into climbing a tree and trapped him there by carving a crude cross into the trunk of the tree. In revenge for being stuck in the tree, the Devil cursed Jack and made him walk the earth at night for eternity. The jack-o-lantern of today is carved with a scary face to keep Jack and other spirits from entering their homes.

A problem for the Celtic people was... if the souls of dead loved ones could return that night, so could anything else, human or not, nice or not-so-nice. So, to protect themselves on such an occasion, these superstitious people would masquerade as one of the demonic hoard, wearing masks and other disguises and blackening the face with soot to hopefully blend in unnoticed among them. This is the source of modern day Halloween costumes portraying devils, imps, ogres, and other demonic creatures.

Should Christians Celebrate Halloween?
For Christians, the origins, history, and current practices of Halloween has its root in Satan, the author of deception.

He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. [John 8:44]

While some might say that Halloween is now only a fun children's holiday, it should be noted how much the modern day American practices and modern day witchcraft have in common with the ancient beliefs of the Celtic people. Contrary to some beliefs, the historic Samhain was not a time for witches and the worship Satan. Samhain was the end of the crop season and the official beginning of autumn. The ancient Celts celebrated a successful crop season on Samhain, giving thanks for the bounty of the harvested crops. The satanic celebrations now observed on Halloween is a more recent invention of more contemporary Satanists who have focused more on this season as a time when the dead can easily communicate with the living therefore making divinations and sacrifices more attainable. Modern day Halloween has thus become a mixture of ancient beliefs, occult practices and a highly commercialized children's holiday.

While some people consider celebrating Halloween to be a sin, others simply feel that Halloween quite simply shouldn't be a holiday at all! A few Southern states have been known to ban trick-or-treating on Halloween, especially when it happens to fall on a Sunday. Halloween parties are renamed "fall festivals" and children replaced scary costumes with costumes of Bible figures, historical figures, or no costume at all.

Considering that Satan is the father of lies, it can be understood how many are confused and deceived about this holiday. Like Christmas and Easter, both Christian celebrations, the true origins of Halloween, a non-Christian celebration, are eons old and some of the true meanings of the traditions of these celebrations have been distorted over time. In recent times, Christmas appears to be more about presents, parades and feasts than about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Traditions surrounding Halloween have followed the same fate. All too often we think of Halloween merely as a time of dressing up in costumes in going trick or treating around the neighborhood. In antiquity, the traditions of Halloween were of enormous significance throughout Scotland, Ireland and Britain.

Apart from the religious controversy surrounding Halloween, many families have also been struggling with even normally well-behaved children who are driven by unseen forces to destructive behavior. Vandalism and wanton disregard for the property of others is common on Halloween night. Police officials everywhere report a great increase in such activities on Halloween. Worse yet are the horrifying accounts of poisoned candy and fruits booby-trapped with razor blades and needles. Such threats are so real that many hospitals offer free X-rays of Halloween treats in order to prevent children from being harmed. Who but Satan could inspire such monstrous actions on this so-called harmless children's holiday?

Vic Bilson writes about current affairs and is author of many social commentary websites including topics about Halloween

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Vic_Bilson

The Recipes and History of Halloween by Dyfed Lloyd Evans

When we think of Halloween today, we tend to think of it as an American festival. We think of dressing up and 'trick or treating'. What most people are unaware of is that Halloween dates back more than 2000 years to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (literally 'Summer's End'). This day marked the passage from the old Celtic year to the new Celtic year.

As such the night of October 31st a 'no time' between the old and the new year and between the light half and the dark halves of the year. It was the practice at this time to extinguish the hearth-fires and to re-kindle them on the following day. Big bonfires were lit to ward off evil spirits and to sanctify the cattle ready for slaughter. (There are still traditional of walking cattle between two bonfires on this day.)

It should also be remembered that November was the traditional time for slaughtering cattle in the Celtic world. Indeed, the modern Welsh name for this month, Tachwedd literally means 'The Month of Slaughter' and the feast of Halloween would have been the start of this month of plentiful meat.

Apples were also important to the ancient Celts and this became even more important with the arrival of the Romans as the worship of the goddess Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees, became grafted on Celtic belief. Also late autumn is the time of apples.

To celebrate these two parts of Celtic belief I have re-created a Celtic pork and apple stew for you to enjoy, below

Celtic Pork and Apple Stew

This is an ancient-inspired stew of pork with apples (these have a natural affinity) that's been re-created using authentic ingredients and techniques

Ingredients:
1.2kg pork meat, cubed
2 tbsp fat (or oil)
2 leeks, chopped
400g greens (strong greens like turnips tops, collard greens, kale are best), chopped
400g wild mushrooms, sliced
3 turnips, peeled and chopped
3 cooking apples, peeled, cored and quartered
70g hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
200ml cider
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp chives
1 tsp dried sage, rubbed
salt, to taste

Method:
Add the fat (or oil) to a large casserole or pot and use to fry the pork and leeks until the meat is nicely browned (about 8 minutes). Add the mushrooms and turnips and cook for 2 minutes then add the herbs and cider along with 800ml water. Bring the mixture to a boil then add the apples.

Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for about 90 minutes, or until the pork is truly tender. Season to taste, then serve ladled into bowls, topped with the hazelnuts. Accompany with chunks of warm crusty bread.

Christianization of the Celtic lands led to the merging of the Christian festival of All Saints' Day with November 1st. Indeed, in 825 Pope Gregory III moved the date of this festival to November 1st, setting it to coincide with the pagan festival of Samhain, thus supplanting the festival with a Christian meaning. Now, in Old English the mass held on All Saints' Day was known as Allhallowmass and the night before was know as All Hallow's Eve (where hallow means sacred, sanctified, holy). By contraction All Hallow's Eve became Hallowe'en (or Halloween).

Interestingly, it was the Irish and Scottish immigrants during the 19th century who brought Halloween festivities to America, so the modern festivities remain a continuation of the ancient Celtic original. Even the caved pumpkin originates with carved swedes and turnips (done in Wales, Scotland and Ireland) and the traditional carved beetroot of England.

Which brings us nicely to that mainstay of modern Halloween foods, the pumpkin. Pumpkins are a New World food (indeed, only one type of squash is known to be native to the Old World, the green Chinese squash and it was this that was used to make the original Ancient Roman pumpkin pie) and are a very useful carbohydrate source. They can be turned into a dizzying array of dishes - everything from pies to chilis.

Below is a recipe for a classic stuffed pumpkin dish for Halloween:

Pumpkin Ghoulish

This is a dish of pumpkin stuffed with a ghoulash-inspired stew,

Ingredients:
675g beef stewing steak cut into 2cm dice
400g baby carrots
300g potatoes, finely diced
1 onion, finely sliced
450g button mushrooms, finely sliced
4 tomatoes, blanched, peeled, de-seeded and chopped
1 green bell pepper, finely sliced
1 celery stick, finely sliced
800ml cream of mushroom soup (tinned is fine)

2 tsp sweet paprika
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp dried mixed herbs
1 whole pumpkin (at least 25 cm in diameter)

Method:
Cut a lid in the top of the pumpkin then scoop out the seeds and clean the pumpkin core then dry thoroughly and set aside.

Add a little oil to a frying pans and use to brown the beef all over then add the spices and herbs and mix to combine. Stir-in the tomatoes, bell pepper and celery and fry for about 5 minutes before adding the mushroom soup. Heat through thoroughly then pour into the prepared pumpkin.

Peel the carrots and cut into 3cm pieces then add to the mixture within the pumpkin along with the mushrooms and 250ml water. Stir to combine then add the lid to the pumpkin and set on a baking tray. Cover the stem of the pumpkin with foil then place in an oven pre-heated to 150°C and bake for about 3 hours, or until cooked through.

Carefully transfer the whole pumpkin to a serving dish, remove the lid and serve at the table. When serving scrape some of the pumpkin flesh to serve with the goulash.

About the Author

Dyfed Lloyd Evans is a Celticist, author of the History and Recipes of Halloween (part of the Recipes for Special Occasions section of his site) along with a collection of pumpkin-based recipes.

The History Of Halloween And The Reason For The Costumes by Faten Hodroge

There are many stories surrounding the celebration of Halloween. It’s obviously a day of fun and mischief for children around the world, but just how did it start? Why is it that we dress our children up in strange costumes and send them out to beg for candy from the neighbors? It’s a strange tradition and one that needs and deserves an explanation.

The word itself - Halloween - comes from the phrase “All Hallows Eve.� That particular “eve� - or evening - is the night before All Saints’ Day, a celebration of the saints of the Catholic Church.

However, the celebration of Halloween is actually based on a pagan holiday called Samhain, a Celtic celebration of the end of harvest. And All Saint’s Day had originally been celebrated in May, but was changed to November 1st by the Catholic Church back in the ninth century.

As a result, the stories behind this celebration have changed over the years and many tales have sprung up to explain this particular night.

One story has it that the spirits of the dead will come back to earth, searching for their bodies. This is the story that the Celts came up with to explain what they saw as a magical time of year. During that night, the spirits of the dead were allowed access to our world.

Of course, if you were walking around with your living body, you wouldn’t want one of these confused spirits to possess you. So what could you do? If you were the people back then, you would dress up in all kinds of horrible costumes to scare away those spirits.

In addition, the villagers would march up and down the street making as much noise as they could and even cause a great deal of destruction...all for the sake of scaring away the spirits. Imagine the damage that was caused to their own property just to scare away the ghosts!

Eventually, Irish immigrants brought their strange and wonderful tradition with them when they came to North America. The destruction, however, by then was nothing more than the occasional outhouse being tipped over or taking the hinges off of front gates. It had definitely become a night of pranks. (After all, “frightening away spirits� takes some creative imagination.)

But how did “trick-or-treating� come about?

Sending our children out begging for treats didn’t come from this Irish tradition. It is more similar to the English tradition of ‘souling’. When a child ‘souled’ in England, they traditionally were begging for money to give to the poor and then asking for a treat for themselves. In exchange for that treat they would offer up their prayers to all the souls that had died. Of course, somehow through time, “souling� - like Halloween itself - has become a Snickers bar and scary costumes.

Obviously the tradition of Halloween as we know it today is a mixture of many different traditions from around the world. What is consistent in the history of all of them - even though your kids might not know it - is the concept of the souls of the dead and their return to earth. So this year, when you dress your child up in their Batman costume and send them on their way to beg for candy that you would rather they didn’t eat, know that you are participating in a rich and colorful tradition that goes back thousands of years.

About the Author

Faten Hodroge is the owner of Canadian Halloween Costumes and a secret lover of costume. In fourth year of operation, and responding to demand from Canadian customers, Faten Hodroge established warehouse operation in the Canada in 2007.