Halloween & Christmas? Similar or Different? Essay

When you think about Christmas and Halloween you think that they are two completely different holidays. But are they really, are they completely different or are they the same thing just celebrated at different times in the year. Well thats what we are going to find out. Christmas celebrated on December 25 and Halloween celebrated on October 31 very unique holidays with many questions to be answered. Lets start with Halloween since that comes first in the year. Halloween is a holiday celebrated at night on October 31st. The word Halloween is shortening All Hallows’ Evening also known as Hallowe’en or All Hallows’ Eve. The traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting â€Å"haunted houses† and carving or painting pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embrace the holiday in the late twentieth century including Ireland, the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom as well as Australia and New Zealand. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. The countries this scary holiday is celebrated in are; Austria, Korea , Belgium, Mexico (day of the dead), Canada, Latin America, China, Spain, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, and Japan. Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two millennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings form the basis of their religion. Popular customs include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. December 25–Christmas Day–has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1870.