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[[Image:Halloween.gif|right|thumb]]'''Halloween''' is a holiday associated with candy, ghosts, trick or treating, and the supernatural observed on October 31. The name is shortened from All Hallows' Eve. "Hallow" means saint. As the name suggests, Halloween is observed on the day before All Saints' Day.

[[Image:Halloween.gif|right|thumb]]'''Halloween''' is a holiday associated with candy, ghosts, trick or treating, and the supernatural observed on October 31. The name is shortened from All Hallows' Eve. "Hallow" means saint. As the name suggests, Halloween is observed on the day before All Saints' Day.

Connecting Halloween to pagan festivals was once a way to discredit Catholic practice. In modern times, these theories serve a neo-pagan agenda. Both groups end up portraying the devoutly Catholic Ireland of the 18th and 19th centuries as a land of paganism.

Connecting Halloween to pagan festivals was once a way to discredit Catholic practice. In modern times, the same theories serve a neo-pagan agenda. Both groups end up portraying the devoutly Catholic Ireland of the 18th and 19th centuries as a land of paganism.

The earliest descriptions of Halloween as a festival refer, not to Ireland at all, but to late 18th century Scotland. The festival combined elements of several holidays that were suppressed in the 16th century as a result of the [[Reformation]]. The holiday owes much to a poem written by [[Robert Burns]] in 1785. With the Industrial Revolution crushing long-established traditions, the Victorians turned to revivalism. The modern child-oriented version of the holiday was established by the early 1900s.

The earliest descriptions of Halloween as a festival refer, not to Ireland at all, but to late 18th century Scotland. The festival combined elements of several holidays that were suppressed in the 16th century as a result of the [[Reformation]]. The spread of the holiday owes much to a poem written by [[Robert Burns]] in 1785. With the Industrial Revolution crushing numerous long-established traditions, the Victorians turned to Halloween to retain connection with the past. The modern child-oriented version of the holiday was established by the early 1900s.

==Etymology==

==Etymology==

Scholars argue that the skeletons, skulls and the other morbid imagery of the Day of the Dead originated with the ''danse macabre'' of the Renaissance. Spanish painter Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828) and Mexican illustrator José Guadalupe Posada (1851 - 1913) helped revive this style. Unaware of this history, modern Mexicans generally see the holiday as an aspect of their Aztec heritage.<ref name="Gonzales">Gonzales, Agustin Sanchez, "[https://relatosehistorias.mx/nuestras-historias/dia-de-muertos-tradicion-prehispanica-o-invencion-del-siglo-xx Día de muertos, ¿Tradición prehispánica o invención del siglo XX?], ''2 Relatos Históricos de México'', Nov. 2, 2007.</ref>

Scholars argue that the skeletons, skulls and the other morbid imagery of the Day of the Dead originated with the ''danse macabre'' of the Renaissance. Spanish painter Francisco Goya (1746 - 1828) and Mexican illustrator José Guadalupe Posada (1851 - 1913) helped revive this style. Unaware of this history, modern Mexicans generally see the holiday as an aspect of their Aztec heritage.<ref name="Gonzales">Gonzales, Agustin Sanchez, "[https://relatosehistorias.mx/nuestras-historias/dia-de-muertos-tradicion-prehispanica-o-invencion-del-siglo-xx Día de muertos, ¿Tradición prehispánica o invención del siglo XX?], ''2 Relatos Históricos de México'', Nov. 2, 2007.</ref>

The celebration of the Day of the Dead has come to symbolize national unity. Even though the festival has always had materialistic elements such as the sugar paste ''afteniqué'' figures, traditionally given to children, cultural nationalists have upheld the Mexican Day of the Dead religious rituals as a contrast to the economic and materialist motives behind American Halloween traditions. These cultural nationalists insist that Halloween activities, which have entered across Mexico's northern border, profane the sacredness of the Day of the Dead.<ref>Brandes, Stanley, "The Day of the Dead, Halloween, and the Quest for Mexican National Identity," ''Journal of American Folklore'' 1998 111(442): 359-380, [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=96430235 in QUESTIA]</ref>

The celebration of the Day of the Dead has come to symbolize national unity. Even though the festival has always had materialistic elements such as the sugar paste ''afteniqué'' figures, traditionally given to children, cultural nationalists have upheld the Mexican Day of the Dead religious rituals as a contrast to the economic and materialist motives behind American Halloween traditions. These cultural nationalists insist that Halloween activities, which have entered across Mexico's northern border, profaning Day of the Dead celebration.<ref>Brandes, Stanley, "The Day of the Dead, Halloween, and the Quest for Mexican National Identity," ''Journal of American Folklore'' 1998 111(442): 359-380, [http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=96430235 in QUESTIA]</ref>

==Further reading==

==Further reading==