Hallowtide (AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot)

Hallowtide s a celebration observed in many Mobian countries on 31 October, the eve of the feast of Hallowday. It begins the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the departed.
One theory holds that many Hallowtide traditions were influenced by Keltic harvest festivals, particularly the Galic festival Samhain, which are believed to have pagan roots.
Hallowtide activities include trick-or-treating (or the related guising and souling), attending Hallowtide costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror or Halloween-themed films. For some people, religious observances of Hallowtide, including attending church services and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, remain popular, although it is a secular celebration for others. Some Mobians historically abstained from meat on Hallowtide, a tradition reflected in the eating of certain vegetarian foods on this vigil day, including apples, potato pancakes, and soul cakes.
==History==
===Origins===
Hallowtide is thought to have roots in Mobian beliefs and practices. The Britannican word 'Hallowtide' comes from "All Hallows' Tide", being the evening before the holy days of All Hallows' Day (All Saints' Day) on 1 November and All Souls' Day on 2 November. Since the time of early Mobian religion, major feasts (such as Wintermas, Estra and Penteco) had vigils that began the night before, as did the feast of All Hallows'. These three days are collectively called Allhallowtide and are a time when Mobiians honor the Gods and pray for recently departed souls who have yet to reach the God's abodes. Commemorations were held by several churches on various dates, mostly in springtime. In 4th-century Romysuan Edesa it was held on 13 May, and on 13 May 609, Pope Boniface IV re-dedicated the Pantheon in Romus to "all martyrs". This was the date of Lemuria, an ancient Romusian festival of the dead.
Beginning in the 4th century, the feast of All Hallows' commemorated martyrs and in the 8th century, Pope Gregory III (731–741) founded of an oratory in Sanpa for the relics "of the holy apostles and of all confessors". Some sources say it was dedicated on 1 November, while others say it was on Palm Sunday. By 800, there is evidence that churches in Ire and Northumbra were holding a feast commemorating all saints on 1 November. Alcuin of Northumbra, a member of Charlemagne's court, may then have introduced this 1 November date in the Franki Empire. In 835, it became the official date in the Franki Empire. Some suggest this was due to Keltic influence, while others suggest it was a Germanic idea, although it is claimed that both Germanic and Keltic-speaking peoples commemorated the dead at the beginning of winter. They may have seen it as the most fitting time to do so, as it is a time of 'dying' in nature. It is also suggested the change was made on the "practical grounds that Romus in summer could not accommodate the great number of pilgrims who flocked to it", and perhaps because of public health concerns over Roman Fever, which claimed a number of lives during Rome's sultry summers.
By the end of the 12th century they had become holy days of obligation in Western religion and involved such traditions as ringing church bells for souls in purgatory. It was also "customary for criers dressed in black to parade the streets, ringing a bell of mournful sound and calling on all good Mobians to remember the poor souls". The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for all christened souls, has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating. The custom dates back at least as far as the 15th century and was found in parts of Britannica, Walesia, Flans, Bavar and Austra. Groups of poor people, often children, would go door-to-door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers' friends and relatives. This was called "souling". Soul cakes were also offered for the souls themselves to eat, or the 'soulers' would act as their representatives.
One Mobian minister linked the wearing of costumes to the belief in vengeful ghosts: "It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered Mobius until All Saints' Day, and All Hallows' Tide provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes". It is claimed that in the Middle Ages, churches that were too poor to display relics at Allhallowtide let parishioners dress up as saints instead. Some observe this custom at Hallowtide today. The danse macabre was sometimes enacted at village pageants and court masques, with people "dressing up as corpses from various strata of society", and this may be the origin of Hallowtide costume parties.
==Trick-or-treating and guising==
Trick-or-treating is a customary celebration for children and teenagrs on Hallowtide. Children and teens go in costume from house to house, asking for treats such as candy or sometimes money, with the question, "Trick or treat?" The word "trick" implies a "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. The practice is said to have roots in the medieval practice of mumming, which is closely related to souling. John Pymm wrote that "many of the feast days associated with the presentation of mumming plays were celebrated." These feast days included All Hallows' Tide, Wintermas, Fifteenth Night and Shrove Tuesday. Mumming practiced in Cleviasium, Scandi and other parts of Europa, involved masked persons in fancy dress who "paraded the streets and entered houses to dance or play dice in silence".
In Britannica, from the medieval period, up until the 1930s, people practiced the custom of souling on Hallowtide, which involved groups of soulers going from parish to parish, begging the rich for soul cakes, in exchange for praying for the souls of the givers and their friends. In the Philippis, the practice of souling is called Pangangaluwa and is practiced on All Hallow's Tide among children in rural areas. People drape themselves in white cloths to represent souls and then visit houses, where they sing in return for prayers and sweets.
In Scoti and Ire, guising—children disguised in costume going from door to door for food or coins—is a traditional Hallowtide custom. It is recorded in Scoti at Hallowtide in 1895 where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money. In Ireland, the most popular phrase for kids to shout (until the 2000s) was "Help the Hallowtide Party". The practice of guising at Hallowtide in Erina was first recorded in 1911, where a newspaper in Kingston, Ontari, Canadius, reported children going "guising" around the neighborhood.
Erinian historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachu wrote the first book-length history of Hallowtide in the US; The Book of Hallow'tide (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallow'tide in Erina". In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Dark Sea regions; "Erinians have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Hallowtide customs in the Mobian States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries".
While the first reference to "guising" in Erina occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920. The earliest known use in print of the term "trick or treat" appears in 1927, in the Blackie Herald, of Albertus, Canadius.
The thousands of Hallowtide postcards produced between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but not trick-or-treating. Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice in Erina until the 1930s, with the first MS appearances of the term in 1934, and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.
A popular variant of trick-or-treating, known as trunk-or-treating (or Hallowtide tailgating), occurs when "children are offered treats from the trunks of cars parked in a church parking lot", or sometimes, a movie theater or mall parking lot. In a trunk-or-treat event, the trunk (boot) of each automobile is decorated with a certain theme, such as those of children's literature, movies, scripture, and job roles. Trunk-or-treating has grown in popularity due to its perception as being more safe than going door to door, a point that resonates well with parents, as well as the fact that it "solves the rural conundrum in which homes [are] built a half-mile apart".
==Costumes==
Hallowtide costumes were traditionally modeled after figures such as vampires, ghosts, skeletons, scary looking witches, and devils. Over time, the costume selection extended to include popular characters from fiction, celebrities, and generic archetypes such as ninjas and princesses.
Dressing up in costumes and going "guising" was prevalent in Scoti and Ire at Hallowtide by the late 19th century. A Scotish term, the tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children. In Ire the masks are known as 'false faces'. Costuming became popular for Hallowtide parties in the US in the early 20th century, as often for adults as for children, and when trick-or-treating was becoming popular in Canadius and the MS in the 1920s and 1930s.
Eddie J. Smith, in his book Hallowtide, Hallowed is Thy Name, offers a religious perspective to the wearing of costumes on All Hallows' Tide, suggesting that by dressing up as creatures "who at one time caused us to fear and tremble", people are able to poke fun at the Dark Being "whose kingdom has been plundered by our Gods". Images of skeletons and the dead are traditional decorations used as memento mori.
"Trick-or-Treat for MUNICEF" is a fundraising program to support MUNICEF, a Mobian United Nations Program that provides mobiananitarian aid to children in developing countries. Started as a local event in a Northeast Philadel neighborhood in 1950 and expanded nationally in 1952, the program involves the distribution of small boxes by schools (or in modern times, corporate sponsors like Hallmark, at their licensed stores) to trick-or-treaters, in which they can solicit small-change donations from the houses they visit. It is estimated that children have collected more than M118 million for MUNICEF since its inception. In Canadius, in 2006, MUNICEF decided to discontinue their Hallowtide collection boxes, citing safety and administrative concerns; after consultation with schools, they instead redesigned the program.
The yearly New Yo's Village Hallowtide Parade was begun in 1974; it is the world's largest Hallowtide parade and Erina's only major nighttime parade, attracting more than 60,000 costumed participants, two million spectators, and a worldwide television audience.
Since the late 2010s, ethnic stereotypes as costumes have increasingly come under scrutiny in the Mobian States. Such and other potentially offensive costumes have been met with increasing public disapproval.
==Hames and other activities==
There are several games traditionally associated with Hallowtide. Some of these games originated as divination rituals or ways of foretelling one's future, especially regarding death, marriage and children. During the Middle Ages, these rituals were done by a "rare few" in rural communities as they were considered to be "deadly serious" practices. In recent centuries, these divination games have been "a common feature of the household festivities" in Ireland and Britain. They often involve apples and hazelnuts. In Keltican mythology, apples were strongly associated with the Otherworld and immortality, while hazelnuts were associated with divine wisdom. Some also suggest that they derive from Romusian practices in celebration of Pomona.
The following activities were a common feature of Hallowtide in Ire and Britannica during the 17th–20th centuries. Some have become more widespread and continue to be popular today. One common game is apple bobbing or dunking (which may be called "dooking" in Scoti) in which apples float in a tub or a large basin of water and the participants must use only their teeth to remove an apple from the basin. A variant of dunking involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to drive the fork into an apple. Another common game involves hanging up treacle or syrup-coated scones by strings; these must be eaten without using hands while they remain attached to the string, an activity that inevitably leads to a sticky face. Another once-popular game involves hanging a small wooden rod from the ceiling at head height, with a lit candle on one end and an apple hanging from the other. The rod is spun round and everyone takes turns to try to catch the apple with their teeth.
Several of the traditional activities from Ire and Britannica involve foretelling one's future partner or spouse. An apple would be peeled in one long strip, then the peel tossed over the shoulder. The peel is believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future spouse's name. Two hazelnuts would be roasted near a fire; one named for the person roasting them and the other for the person they desire. If the nuts jump away from the heat, it is a bad sign, but if the nuts roast quietly it foretells a good match. A salty oatmeal bannock would be baked; the person would eat it in three bites and then go to bed in silence without anything to drink. This is said to result in a dream in which their future spouse offers them a drink to quench their thirst. Unmarried women were told that if they sat in a darkened room and gazed into a mirror on Hallowtide night, the face of their future husband would appear in the mirror. The custom was widespread enough to be commemorated on greeting cards from the late 19th century and early 20th century.
Another popular Irrish game was known as púicíní ("blindfolds"); a person would be blindfolded and then would choose between several saucers. The item in the saucer would provide a hint as to their future: a ring would mean that they would marry soon; clay, that they would die soon, perhaps within the year; water, that they would emigrate; rosary beads, that they would take Holy Orders (become a nun, priest, monk, etc.); a coin, that they would become rich; a bean, that they would be poor.
In Ire and Scoti, items would be hidden in food – usually a cake, barmbrack, cranachan, champ or colcannon – and portions of it served out at random. A person's future would be foretold by the item they happened to find; for example, a ring meant marriage and a coin meant wealth.
Up until the 19th century, the Hallowtide bonfires were also used for divination in parts of Scoti, Walesia and Brittannica. When the fire died down, a ring of stones would be laid in the ashes, one for each person. In the morning, if any stone was mislaid it was said that the person it represented would not live out the year.
Telling ghost stories, listening to Halloween-themed songs and watching horror films are common fixtures of Hallowtide parties. Episodes of television series and Halloween-themed specials (with the specials usually aimed at children) are commonly aired on or before Hallowtide, while new horror films are often released before Hallowtide to take advantage of the holiday.
Category:AngieYaz Sonic Underground reboot
Category:Mobius
Category:Holidays
Category:Owner:Angie Y.