Halloween is a celebration we are all familiar with and is often a controversial one as well since various groups disagree with dressing up as monsters and other ghoulish creatures. A lot of organizations prefer to have fall festivals instead of Halloween celebrations believing it is an evil holiday but the history of it tells a different story. Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic celebration known as Samhain. It was a festival held at the end of the harvest season and is sometimes regarded as the Celtic New Year. It was a time the Celtic pagans inventoried their supplies and slaughtered livestock in preparation for winter. They also believed that October 31 blurred the lines between the living and the dead. The dead were dangerous to the living and were the cause of illness and crop damage or failure and the Celts wore masks and costumes to placate the spirits. 
The term Halloween is a shortened version of All Hallows’ Eve which was the evening of All Hallows’ Day and was a day of northern European pagan festivities which was known as All Saints Day by the church which was a Christian celebration that occurred on May 13 but was moved to November 1st by a couple of 9th century popes. The church measured the days as starting at sunset so All Saints Day and Halloween were celebrated on the same day for a while though now All Saints Day is celebrated the day after Halloween since that calendar system has not been used for centuries. Many in the church see it is a demon worshipping holiday but historically it is the day when the living and dead can communicate for a short time. Halloween as we know it was brought to America in 1840 by Irish immigrants fleeing the potato famine in their country.
Some of the traditions and their activities have their roots in historical stories and events. The Romans added some of the Celtic traditions into their own culture and one of those is honoring the goddess Pomona. The symbol of Pomona is an apple which may be an explanation of the modern Halloween tradition of bobbing for apples. Over time the custom of dressing like witches and goblins became more ceremonial than a belief that the dead were actually walking the earth. Trick or Treating is believed to have started as a 9th century European custom known as souling. On November 2nd Christians would roam from village to village asking for pieces of bread with currants baked into them known as Soul Cakes. They would promise to say prayers for the recently deceased from any of the people who gave them the cakes and the prayers were believed to help the soul on its way to heaven. The jack-o-lantern is a holdover from Irish legends about a drunkard named Jack who tricked Satan into climbing a tree and carved a cross into the tree trapping Satan. The tale says that Jack died but was not admitted to heaven because of his bad ways and was not let into hell since he had tricked the devil. The devil gave him a glowing ember to light his way which Jack placed in a hollowed turnip to make the light last longer. The Irish used turnips initially as their Jack-o-lanterns but the newly arrived Irish in America found that hollowed pumpkins made better lanterns and they have been a fixture of Halloween since. Halloween has become a large holiday in America from both the economic and social aspects and only gets bigger each year regardless of how it is celebrated.
History of Father’s Day
Father’s Day is a well known holiday celebrating dads, forefathers, and male parents in general. It is a fairly recent holiday and was instituted as a complement to the established Mother’s Day celebration. Father’s Day was created in the early years of the 20th century and it usually consists of family activities such as gift giving or dining out. Dads around the world probably have closets full of bad ties given over the years since fathers are notoriously difficult to find an appropriate gift for.
Ms. Sonora Smart Dodd thought of the holiday during a Mother’s Day sermon at her church in Spokane, Washington in 1909. She put together a celebration for her father on June 19, 1910 and was the first person to champion an official holiday to honor fathers in general. There was support from groups such as the YMCA, YWCA, and numerous churches but it still took many years to get the holiday officially recognized. People considered Father’s Day to basically be a joke and did not take it seriously. Mother’s Day was looked forward to and celebrated with sincerity but Father’s Day was the object of parody and the butt of many jokes often printed in newspapers. They saw it as the beginning of frivolous holidays including Professional Secretary Day or National Clean Your Desk Day, etc.
| In 1913 a congressional bill was introduced but was not quickly successful. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge put his support behind the idea. Several trade organizations formed a committee during the 1930s and made an effort to bring legitimacy to Father’s Day. It was not until 1966 when President Lyndon Johnson signed a proclamation formally recognizing it as a federal holiday. As with many holidays, Father’s Day has become increasingly commercialized with multitudes of retailers marketing a wide range of merchandise and gift ideas for dad. The trade |
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| groups of the 1930s often participated in the mocking of Father’s Day and promoted gifts at the same time. The Mother’s Day holiday is very sentimental and its legitimacy is not questioned since it is a proper homage to the contributions of our mothers. Speaking as a father, it is also as important to recognize the important role father’s play even if we are difficult to shop for. A bad tie is just fine. | ||||||||||||
Most of us are familiar with the Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans with parades, floats, beads, and drunken revelers in the streets. Mardi Gras is kind of a last fling before the observance of Lent which starts on Ash Wednesday and ends 40 days later on Easter. The history of the Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) celebration dates back long before Europeans brought it to America. In fact, during the middle of February the Romans celebrated Lupercalia which is a festival similar the Mardi Gras we know. After Rome embraced Christianity the church decided to incorporate some of the pagan customs so the new adherents would not see all their rituals abolished. The season of Carnival became the wild abandon before the penance of Lent so it was given a Christian interpretation of the custom. The word carnival comes from Latin for “Meat Leaving” and the season of lent is marked by a fasting from meat. Lent is not mentioned in the Bible but it has been a tradition in the Christianity since the 4th century and it parallels the fasting Jesus went through in the wilderness after his baptism.
Mardi Gras came to America in 1699 when French adventurer Pierre Le Moyne Iberville explored the Mississippi River after sailing in the Gulf of Mexico. Mardi Gras had been a part of Paris culture since the Middle Ages and he set up camp about 60 miles from New Orleans on the day it was being celebrated in France. Iberville named the location Point du Mardi Gras as his way of honoring the day. The celebrations were common into the late 1700s in New Orleans until it came under Spanish rule when it was banned. America took control in 1803 but the celebrations were still banned until the Creole people convinced the governor to allow masked parties in 1823. Street parties were allowed starting in 1827.
Wanted poster’s dotted the south, calling for Tubman’s capture. The reward reached a staggering $40,000, showing the impact of Tubman’s bravery. Others were inspired by her work and her determination and the Underground Railroad blossomed. 
