Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origins 4. Today the word origin
we're going to do is 'Halloween' Now which is coming up soon. So it will be very suitable
for that time. All right. Let's take a look at the note here. The origin of the
word Halloween comes from Scotland. In Scottish all Hallow E'en meant holy Eve.
Yeah. So hallow really meant holy. The eve meant either like evening or eve. We
know even today in English. eve always means the day before. Just like we say
New Year's Eve and we say Christmas Eve. It's always the day before. So all Hallow
e'en meant Holy Eve. Let's continue this of course was the evening before
the celebration of All Saints Day. It's kind of ironic in a way. Because way back
in about a thousand years ago , All Saints Day was the more important holiday. And
was celebrated a lot where today unfortunately not many people know All
Saints Day anymore. It's mostly a Christian holiday and I think even most Christians
don't know All Saints Day anyway. But it used to be a very big holiday where they
honored a lot of the saints, you know from , from before that time. Let's
continue. This holiday it was a feast day to celebrate all Christian saints it was
originally called 'All Hallow Day.' Again hallow , hallow was also , I mean it could
be connected to holy but it was also an old word for Saint. So All Hallow, for
all the saints. It used to be celebrated in the spring.
but was moved to November 1st by Pope Gregory the IV in 835 AD. So he moved it
to November 1st which was simply the day after, another day that the Celts used
for a Samhain festival. Okay. So let's take a look at that. So October 31st used to
be the last day of the year in the old Celtic calendar. Okay. The Celts used to
believe the boundaries between the living and the dead were closer at
the very end of the year. They thought it was easier for the dead to visit the
living at this time. The Celts used to have a pagan festival called Samhain.
All the traditions of the original Halloween costumes of ghosts , witches,
devils, etc. came from this festival. So really, this really comes from the pagan
festival that we celebrate Halloween from. So that's what they thought. It was
believed the dead rose for one night just before All Saints Day. But the name
was actually changed due to All Saints Day because it really was changed to the
the Eve or the day before the All Saints Day. Okay. Let's continue. After the Pope
moved the holiday the Samhain Festival started to be referred to as all
Hallow E'en which eventually formed into the word Halloween today. So it's kind of
ironic. So these two holidays are directly connected even though All
Saints Day really is not so well known anymore. And it's mostly just a Christian
holiday. Halloween however, is celebrated throughout the entire country
in the US. It is mostly an American holiday even though its roots come from
Scotland and the pagan festivals that they used to have there. Okay. Anyway , well I
hope you got it. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your time. Bye- bye