七嘴八舌话说万圣_英美文化_趣味英语-查字典英语网

七嘴八舌话说万圣

万圣节是西方传统节日。万圣节前夜，当夜幕降临，孩子们穿上五颜六色的化妆服，戴上千奇百怪的面具。有的披上漆黑长衫，骑着“魔帚”，扮作女巫；有的裹上白床单装鬼；有的戴上画有骷髅旗的帽子扮成海盗…… Next to Christmas, Halloween is the most commercialized celebration in the United States and Canada. This ancient festival originated far from North America however, and centuries before the first European set foot on the continent.

The ancient Druids 督伊德教(古代高卢人与不列颠人的一种宗教)的教徒 who inhabited what we now call Great Britain placed great importance on the passing of one season to the next, holding "Fire Festivals" which were celebrated for three days (two days on either side of the day itself).

One of these festivals was called Samhain (pronounced Sha-Von) and it took place on October 31 through to November 1. During this period, it was believed that the boundaries between our world and the world of the dead were weakened, allowing spirits of the recently dead to cross over and possess the living.

In order to make themselves and their homes less inviting to these wayward spirits, the ancient Celts（凯尔特人）would douse （插入水中, 把弄熄, 弄湿）all their fires. There was also a secondary purpose to this, after extinguishing all their fires, they would re-light them from a common source, the Druidic fire that was kept burning at Usinach, in the Middle of Ireland.