06 Nov 2014
This week in Primary we have been learning about celebrations and traditions. With so many upcoming holidays, we have a busy few months ahead! We have kicked off the festivities with Halloween. Halloween is thought to have originated around 2000 years ago with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The festival marked the end of harvest season and the beginning of winter, or the "darker half" of the year. The Celts would light bonfires to ward off spirits and wear costumes to blend in with them. Later the Christian church selected November 1st to honor saints and martyrs. This day was known as All Saints' Day and it incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows' Eve and later on, Halloween. While many think of Halloween as mainly an American tradition, it is actually celebrated in many countries all over the world, and in recent years has begun to gain popularity in Australia and New Zealand. Today, Halloween celebrations include activities such as trick-or-treating, pumpkin carving and dressing up in costumes, ghoulish or otherwise. This week we have baked pumpkin pie, created a paper mache pinata spider, ghost and pumpkin, and also designed and carved our own jack-o'-lantern.