[万圣节] 谈起源和历史传说

Halloween is an annual celebration, but just what is it actually a celebration of? And how did this peculiar¹ custom originate? Is it, as some claim, a kind of demon² worship? Or is it just a harmless vestige³ of some ancient pagan ritual?

The word itself, Halloween, actually has its origins in the Catholic Church. It comes from a contracted corruption⁴ of All Hallows Eve. November 1, All Hollows Day (or All Saints Day), is a Catholic day of observance in honor of saints. But, in the 5th century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31. The holiday was called Samhain (sow-en), the Celtic New year. 

One story says that, on that day, the disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be their only hope for the afterlife. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living.

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed⁵. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable⁶. They would then dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily paraded around the neighborhood, being as destructive as possible in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

Probably a better explanation of why the Celts extinguished their fires was not to discourage spirit possession, but so that all the Celtic tribes could relight their fires from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach.

Some accounts tell of how the Celts would burn someone at the stake who was thought to have already been possessed, as sort of a lesson to the spirits. Other accounts of Celtic history debunk⁷ these stories as myth. 

The Romans adopted the Celtic practices as their own. But in the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees. The symbol of Pomona is the apple, which might explain the origin of our modern tradition of bobbing for apples on Halloween.

The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As belief in spirit possession waned⁸, the practice of dressing⁹ up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840's by Irish immigrants fleeing their country's potato famine. At that time, the favorite pranks¹⁰ in New England included tipping over outhouses and unhinging fence gates.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Christians¹¹ would walk from village to village begging for soul cakes, made out of square pieces of bread with currants. The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors¹². At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo¹³ for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul's passage to heaven.

The Jack¹⁴-o-lantern custom probably comes from Irish folklore¹⁵. As the tale is told, a man named Jack, who was notorious as a drunkard and trickster, tricked Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, trapping the devil up the tree. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt¹⁶ him again, he would promise to let him down the tree.

According to the folk tale, after Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he was also denied access to Hell because he had tricked the devil. Instead, the devil gave him a single ember to light his way through the frigid¹⁷ darkness. The ember was placed inside a hollowed-out turnip¹⁸ to keep it glowing longer.

The Irish used turnips¹⁹ as their Jack's lanterns originally. But when the immigrants came to America, they found that pumpkins²¹ were far more plentiful²² than turnips. So the Jack-O-Lantern in America was a hollowed-out pumpkin²⁰, lit with an ember.

So, although some cults²³ may have adopted Halloween as their favorite holiday, the day itself did not grow out of evil practices. It grew out of the rituals of Celts celebrating a new year, and out of Medieval prayer rituals of Europeans. And today, even many churches have Halloween parties or pumpkin carving²⁴ events for the kids. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.

1 peculiar
adj.古怪的 ，异常的；特殊的 ，特有的
参考例句：
He walks in a peculiar fashion.他走路的样子很奇特。 He looked at me with a very peculiar expression.他用一种很奇怪的表情看着我 。

2 demon
n.魔鬼，恶魔
参考例句：
The demon of greed ruined the miser's happiness.贪得无厌的恶习毁掉了那个守财奴的幸福。 He has been possessed by the demon of disease for years.他多年来病魔缠身 。

3 vestige
n.痕迹 ，遗迹 ，残余
参考例句：
Some upright stones in wild places are the vestige of ancient religions.荒原上一些直立的石块是古老宗教的遗迹。 Every vestige has been swept away.一切痕迹都被一扫而光 。

4 corruption
n.腐败，堕落 ，贪污
参考例句：
The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃 。 The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

5 possessed
adj.疯狂的；拥有的 ，占有的
参考例句：
He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门 。 He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了 。

6 undesirable
adj.不受欢迎的，不良的 ，不合意的 ，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子
参考例句：
They are the undesirable elements among the employees.他们是雇员中的不良分子。 Certain chemicals can induce undesirable changes in the nervous system.有些化学物质能在神经系统中引起不良变化 。

7 debunk
v.揭穿真相 ，暴露
参考例句：
let's debunk some of the most common falsehoods.让我们来揭穿一些最常见的谬误吧 。 Sequences of maps can also debunk misconceptions.一系列的地图，也有助于厘清错误概念。

8 waned
v.衰落( wane的过去式和过去分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡
参考例句：
However,my enthusiasm waned.The time I spent at exercises gradually diminished. 然而 ，我的热情减退了 。我在做操上花的时间逐渐减少了 。 来自《用法词典》 The bicycle craze has waned. 自行车热已冷下去了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 dressing
n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料
参考例句：
Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己 。 The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

10 pranks
n.玩笑 ，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 )
参考例句：
Frank's errancy consisted mostly of pranks. 法兰克错在老喜欢恶作剧 。 来自辞典例句 He always leads in pranks and capers. 他老是带头胡闹和开玩笑。 来自辞典例句

11 Christians
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )
参考例句：
Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议 。 His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤 。

12 donors
n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者
参考例句：
Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去 ，请给我们发电子邮件。 About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠 。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 limbo
n.地狱的边缘；监狱
参考例句：
His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难 。 I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死 ，感觉自己茫然无措。

14 jack
n.插座 ，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起 ，提醒 ，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克
参考例句：
I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔 。 He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎 。

15 folklore
n.民间信仰，民间传说 ，民俗
参考例句：
Zhuge Liang is a synonym for wisdom in folklore.诸葛亮在民间传说中成了智慧的代名词。 In Chinese folklore the bat is an emblem of good fortune.在中国的民间传说中蝙蝠是好运的象征 。

16 tempt
vt.引诱 ，勾引，吸引 ，引起…的兴趣
参考例句：
Nothing could tempt him to such a course of action.什么都不能诱使他去那样做 。 The fact that she had become wealthy did not tempt her to alter her frugal way of life.她有钱了，可这丝毫没能让她改变节俭的生活习惯。

17 frigid
adj.寒冷的 ，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的
参考例句：
The water was too frigid to allow him to remain submerged for long.水冰冷彻骨，他在下面呆不了太长时间 。 She returned his smile with a frigid glance.对他的微笑她报以冷冷的一瞥。

18 turnip
n.萝卜 ，芜菁
参考例句：
The turnip provides nutrition for you.芜菁为你提供营养 。 A turnip is a root vegetable.芜菁是根茎类植物。

19 turnips
芜青( turnip的名词复数 )； 芜菁块根； 芜菁甘蓝块根； 怀表
参考例句：
Well, I like turnips, tomatoes, eggplants, cauliflowers, onions and carrots. 噢 ，我喜欢大萝卜 、西红柿 、茄子、菜花 、洋葱和胡萝卜 。 来自魔法英语-口语突破（高中） This is turnip soup, made from real turnips. 这是大头菜汤，用真正的大头菜做的 。

20 pumpkin
n.南瓜
参考例句：
They ate turkey and pumpkin pie.他们吃了火鸡和南瓜馅饼。 It looks like there is a person looking out of the pumpkin!看起来就像南瓜里有人在看着你！

21 pumpkins
n.南瓜( pumpkin的名词复数 )；南瓜的果肉 ，南瓜囊
参考例句：
I like white gourds, but not pumpkins. 我喜欢吃冬瓜 ，但不喜欢吃南瓜 。 来自《简明英汉词典》 Then they cut faces in the pumpkins and put lights inside. 然后在南瓜上刻出一张脸，并把瓜挖空 。 来自英语晨读30分（高三）

22 plentiful
adj.富裕的 ，丰富的
参考例句：
Their family has a plentiful harvest this year.他们家今年又丰收了。 Rainfall is plentiful in the area.这个地区雨量充足 。

23 cults
n.迷信( cult的名词复数 )；狂热的崇拜；（有极端宗教信仰的）异教团体
参考例句：
Religious cults and priesthoods are sectarian by nature. 宗教崇拜和僧侣界天然就有派性 。 来自辞典例句 All these religions were flourishing side by side with many less prominent cults. 所有这些宗教和许多次要的教派一起 ，共同繁荣。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史

24 carving
n.雕刻品，雕花
参考例句：
All the furniture in the room had much carving.房间里所有的家具上都有许多雕刻 。 He acquired the craft of wood carving in his native town.他在老家学会了木雕手艺 。