【每日英语听力】万圣节的历史 The History Of Halloween
Kendrick🍎 原文填空
Every year, millions of people around the country spill into streets, dressed as 一般过去时 用一般过去时描述当时发生的动作 fairies, goblins, characters from their favorite movie franchise , and everything in between.
Partying and making mischief .
But outside of a good time , how many know why they do it?
Today, Halloween is a billion-dollar industry.
But exactly how did it get there?
While today Halloween is synonymous with commercialism, it wasn’t always that way.
The word Halloween comes from the words hallow, meaning Holy person, and een, deriving as a contraction of eve.
And All Hallows’ Eve finds its origins all the way back in the time of the ancient Celtic pagans with the holiday of Samhain, a three-day fire festival that essentially celebrated death and rebirth.
The Celts, who lived in what is now Ireland, Scotland, the UK, and parts of Northern Europe, based their calendar on the wheel of a year.
Essentially divided into two halves, the light and the dark.
When one gave way to the other, this transition was marked by a fire festival.
The word Samhain translates into modern Irish to summer’s end.
Samhain celebrated the dead.
And particularly, the celebratory feast paid homage to loved ones who had passed away recently.
Essentially as an invitation for their spirits to rejoin the living.
Many of Samhain’s original rituals have been lost, but what we do know of their holiday traditions from Celtic, folklore and ancient Roman historians is that they were intended to connect them to spirits.
Including costumes, Most likely animal are first to help them hide from the unfriendly ones, feasting and making lanterns from hollowed-out gourds .
Seemingly the birth of the modern pumpkin jack-o-lantern.
Sacrifices generally of crops or animals were made during this time as an offering to the spirits.
It was popular for tricks or pranks to be played by humans and blamed on mischievous spirits.
As a result of the Roman invasion with most of the Celtic land being conquered by Rome in 43 CE, the spread of Christianity and Catholicism would force pagan Celtic traditions to evolve or be completely repressed .
In part, many Celtic traditions and popular pagan practices were reframed to fit within a Christian narrative as a way of converting people with greater comfort and ease.
Samhain would evolve into All Saints Day, which is also referred to as All Hallows Day.
And was intended to be a day to celebrate the Christian saints and martyrs .
Essentially, instead of honoring pagan gods and mischievous spirits, they now celebrated Christian figures.
While the sacrifices were replaced by food offerings to the poor, the tricks and pranks continued.
But instead, they were now attributed to the spirits of the saints.
Halloween evolved as a more secular version of All Hallows’ Eve, and eventually it would become more popular and common practice than All Saints Day.
While Halloween has its origins in the British Isles, there’s a great disparity in its popularity in former British colonies.
The Puritans who came to colonize America were Protestant and did not celebrate holidays of the Catholic church, as they were believed to lead to idolatry.
In the early days of the American colonies, celebrations of Halloweens were mostly forbidden as they were deemed top pagan or too Catholic by the Protestant colonizers.
Though elements of it began to incorporate into secular harvest-related events in the 1800s.
The mid-19th century saw a large influx of immigrants entering the country, especially Irish immigrants who were greatly impacted by the potato famine .
With these people came Halloween customs out of which one of America’s favorite holidays was formed.
In keeping with the mischief, children would dress in costumes and be given money or fruit for artistic offerings like poetry, songs, or even jokes instead of prayers.
By the late 19th century, children were playing seemingly innocuous pranks on their small local communities.
Adults would soon find incentive to dissuade children from playing pranks.
Enter trick or treating.
The 20th century would finally see the commercialization of Halloween.
By the 1920s and 30’s, Halloween merchandise evolved to pre-made costumes for both children and adults.
After World War Two in the 1950s, the economic boom had candy manufacturers getting on the Halloween bandwagon .
Movies and TV are also largely responsible for the proliferation of Halloween as a mass market holiday.
Cinemas in the 50s offered scary movie festivals.
And in the 60s, the new television industry began running Halloween specials during Halloween season.
By 2015, the National Retail Federation predicted spending on Halloween could reach $6.9 billion.
Whether you believe that we’ve lost the meaning or not, Halloween has since evolved far beyond the days of pagan fire festivals.
For more than a month out of the year, costume stores show up out of nowhere.
Candy corn and Halloween-themed candies dominate whole aisles of grocery stores, and spooky shows and movies build out entire TV station schedules.
Whether you like it or not, whether you want to dress up as a gruesome goblin or a sexy cat, or ignore the holiday altogether, Halloween has stood the test of time and proven itself as a holiday that’s here to stay.
🍉 重点词汇/短语
- spill into 涌进
- movie franchise 电影系列
- mischief 恶作剧
- outside of a good time 除了玩乐之外
- synonymous with sth . ..的代名词
- feast 盛宴/祭礼
- paid homage to… 向…致敬/悼念
- ritual 仪式/礼节/老规矩
- folklore 民间习俗
- gourd 葫芦
- prank 恶作剧
- blame on 主要归咎于…
- repress 压制
- narrative 叙述(的)
- sth. as a way of 某物是…的一种方式
- refer to 适用/涉及
- Chrinstianity 基督教
- Catholicism 天主教
- martyrs 殉道者
- Essentially 本质上说
- be attribue to 延续…的精神
- secular 世俗的
- disparity 差距
- Puritans 清教徒
- Protestant 新教徒
- deeped top pagan 极端的异教徒
- incorporate 合并/融入
- a large influx of immigrants 大批移民涌入
- famine 饥荒
- innocuous 无害的
- incentive 动机
- dissuade…from… 劝阻…
- bandwagon 时尚/风靡的活动
- responsible for the proliferation of Halloween as… 推动万圣节作为…的普及
- running Halloween specials 播放万圣节特辑
- far beyond 远超
- for more than a month out of the year 每年有一个多月的时间时间里
- out of nowhere 突然冒出
- spooky 幽灵般的
- gruesome goblin 恐怖的妖怪
- has stood the test of time 经受住了时间的考验