Halloween Songs

This Is Halloween - Lyrics

The History of Halloween

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Halloween traditions of trick-or-treating and jack-o-lanterns were brought to America in the 1840s by Irish escaping the Great Potato Famine. On Halloween, Irish peasants begged the rich for food and played practical jokes on those who refused. To avoid being tricked, the rich handed out cookies, candies, and fruit - a practice that turned into our present day trick-or-treating.

Jack-o-lanterns trace back to an old Irish tale about a man named Stingy Jack. Unable to enter Heaven because of his stingy ways and turned away by the Devil, Stingy Jack wandered the world, searching for a resting place. To light his way, Stingy Jack used a burning coal in a hollowed out turnip -- hence the name "jack-o-lantern." The first jack-o-lanterns, in fact, were carved out of turnips. Only when the Irish tradition reached America did turnip carving turn into pumpkin carving.

Witch means wise one. It comes from the Saxon word wica. Witches were thought to be wise enough to tell the future.

Orange and black became Halloween colors because of orange is associated with harvests and black is associated with death.

Halloween is the 8th largest card-sending occasion. There are over 28 million Halloween cards sent each year!

There are many variations on the history of Halloween, but it's generally believed that Halloween dates back to 700 B.C. to the Celts, a rural society in northern England, Ireland and Scotland. On November 1, the first day of their new year, the Celts celebrated a festival called Samhain ("sow-in").

Chosen to signify the end of the harvest season and the onset of winter, Samhain was also thought to be a day of the dead. Because it was the end of one year and the start of another, the Celts believed that past and present were closely linked, allowing ancestral spirits to join them.

On the eve of Samhain, October 31, the Celts dressed in costume, lit bonfires, and offered food and drink to masked revelers. Many say the costumes and fires were used to drive away the spirits, and the food given to placate the dead.

October 31 came to be called Halloween when the Christians proclaimed November 1 as All Hallow Day. Unable to stop the pagan ritual of Samhain, the Christians made it a day to celebrate saints who had no day of their own. The night before, or All Hallow Eve, was later shortened to Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

Pocahontas - Listen With Your Heart (English)

The Best Things in Life Are Free

When we count
our many blessings;
It isn't hard to see
that life's most valued
treasures are the
treasures that are free.

For it isn't what
we own or buy
that signifies
our wealth.

It's the special
gifts that have
no price:
our family,
friends and health.

Author Unknown 

Thanksgiving Day  (TGD)


TGD is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Traditionally, it is a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general. While it may have been religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday.
In the United States, Thanksgiving Day falls on the fourth Thursday of November. 
In Canada it is celebrated on the second Monday in October.
The precise historical origin of the holiday is disputed. Although Americans commonly believe that the first Thanksgiving happened in 1621, at Plymouth Plantation, in Massachusetts, there is strong evidence for earlier celebrations in Canada (1578) and by Spanish explorers in Florida (1565).
Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day, currently celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November, has been an annual tradition in the United States since 1863. 
Thanksgiving was historically a religious observation to give thanks to God.
It is thought that the first Thanksgiving was celebrated to give thanks to God for helping the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony survive their first brutal winter in New England. 
The first Thanksgiving feast lasted three days providing enough food for 53 pilgrims and 90 Native Americans. The feast consisted of fowl, venison, fish, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin, and squash. William Bradford's note that, "besides waterfowl, there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took many, probably gave rise to the American tradition of eating turkey at Thanksgiving.
Note:

It is thought that the first Thanksgivings were held as celebrations to thank god and enjoy the wonderful bounty of food. The Pilgrims were also thankful to the Native American Indians that taught them how to cook and survive in the New World.
While I think it is important to honor the Native Americans for their contributions to the survival of the immigrants, we should not turn our whole focus of Thanksgiving to a study of Pilgrims and Indians. Nor should the only mention of Native Americans, or Indians occur during Thanksgiving.

Depeche Mode Somebody