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Every year, millions of people around the country spill into streets, dressed as fairies, goblins, characters from their favorite movie franchise, and everything in between.
每年,全国各地数百万人涌上街头,打扮成仙女、妖精和他们最喜欢的电影系列中的角色。
Partying and making mischief.
以及要么聚会,要么恶作剧。
But outside of a good time, how many know why they do it?
但是在玩乐之外,有多少人知道这样做的原因?
Today, Halloween is a billion-dollar industry.
如今,万圣节已是一个价值数十亿美元的产业。
But exactly how did it get there?
但它到底是怎么达到的呢?
While today Halloween is synonymous with commercialism, it wasn't always that way.
虽然今天万圣节是商业主义的代名词,但并不是一直这样。
The word Halloween comes from the words hallow, meaning Holy person, and een, deriving as a contraction of eve.
“Halloween”这个词来源于hallow,意思是神圣的人,而“een”是eve(前夜)的缩写。
And All Hallows' Eve finds its origins all the way back in the time of the ancient Celtic pagans with the holiday of Samhain, a three-day fire festival that essentially celebrated death and rebirth.
万圣节前夜的起源可以追溯到古代凯尔特异教徒的萨温节(Samhain),这是一个为期三天的火节,主要庆祝死亡和重生。
The Celts, who lived in what is now Ireland, Scotland, the UK, and parts of Northern Europe, based their calendar on the wheel of a year.
凯尔特人生活在现在的爱尔兰、苏格兰、英国和北欧部分地区,他们的日历是一个年轮。
Essentially divided into two halves, the light and the dark.
年轮基本上分为两部分,光明和黑暗。
When one gave way to the other, this transition was marked by a fire festival.
光暗交接标志就是举行火节。
The word Samhain translates into modern Irish to summer's end.
Samhain这个词在现代爱尔兰语中是“夏天结束”的意思。
Samhain celebrated the dead.
萨温节纪念死者。
And particularly, the celebratory feast paid homage to loved ones who had passed away recently.
尤其是举办祭礼向最近去世的亲人表示纪念。
Essentially as an invitation for their spirits to rejoin the living.
本质上是邀请他们的灵魂回到活人身边。
Many of Samhain's original rituals have been lost, but what we do know of their holiday traditions from Celtic, folklore and ancient Roman historians is that they were intended to connect them to spirits.
萨温节的许多原始仪式已经失传,但我们从凯尔特、民间传说和古罗马历史学家那里了解到,他们的节日传统是为了将自己与神灵联系起来。
Including costumes, Most likely animal are first to help them hide from the unfriendly ones, feasting and making lanterns from hollowed-out gourds.
除了服装,还有动物帮助他们躲避不友好的人、举办宴会和用挖空的葫芦制作灯笼。
Seemingly the birth of the modern pumpkin jack-o-lantern.
这似乎是现代南瓜灯的起源。
Sacrifices generally of crops or animals were made during this time as an offering to the spirits.
在此期间,通常用庄稼或动物进行祭祀,作为给灵魂的祭品。
It was popular for tricks or pranks to be played by humans and blamed on mischievous spirits.
而流行的把戏或恶作剧是人类的自娱自乐,主要是有着恶作剧的灵魂。
As a result of the Roman invasion with most of the Celtic land being conquered by Rome in 43 CE, the spread of Christianity and Catholicism would force pagan Celtic traditions to evolve or be completely repressed.
由于罗马人的入侵,凯尔特的大部分土地在公元43年被罗马占领,基督教和天主教的传播将抑制了由传统变异教的凯尔特人发展,或者被完全压制。
In part, many Celtic traditions and popular pagan practices were reframed to fit within a Christian narrative as a way of converting people with greater comfort and ease.
在某种程度上,许多凯尔特传统和流行的异教做法被重新定义,以贴近基督教,成为一种更舒适和轻松的让人皈依的方式。
Samhain would evolve into All Saints Day, which is also referred to as All Hallows Day.
萨温节演变成万圣(Saints)节,也被称为万圣(Hallows)节。
And was intended to be a day to celebrate the Christian saints and martyrs.
这一天也变成了纪念基督教圣徒和殉道者。
Essentially, instead of honoring pagan gods and mischievous spirits, they now celebrated Christian figures.
从本质上说,万圣节现在纪念的是基督教人物,而不是异教徒的神和淘气的精灵。
While the sacrifices were replaced by food offerings to the poor, the tricks and pranks continued.
虽然祭品变成了穷人的食物,但恶作剧仍在继续。
But instead, they were now attributed to the spirits of the saints.
并且被认为是延续了圣人的精神。
Halloween evolved as a more secular version of All Hallows' Eve, and eventually it would become more popular and common practice than All Saints Day.
万圣节演变成更加世俗的万圣节前夜,并最终变得更受欢迎和普及。
While Halloween has its origins in the British Isles, there's a great disparity in its popularity in former British colonies.
虽然万圣节起源于不列颠群岛,但它在前英国殖民地的受欢迎程度存在很大差异。
The Puritans who came to colonize America were Protestant and did not celebrate holidays of the Catholic church, as they were believed to lead to idolatry.
前来殖民美国的清教徒是新教徒,不庆祝天主教会的节日,因为他们认为会导致偶像崇拜。
In the early days of the American colonies, celebrations of Halloweens were mostly forbidden as they were deemed top pagan or too Catholic by the Protestant colonizers.
在美洲殖民地的早期,庆祝万圣节大多是被禁止的,因为新教徒殖民者认为这是极端的异教徒或天主教行为。
Though elements of it began to incorporate into secular harvest-related events in the 1800s.
虽然万圣节的元素在19世纪开始融入与丰收有关的事件中。
The mid-19th century saw a large influx of immigrants entering the country, especially Irish immigrants who were greatly impacted by the potato famine.
19世纪中叶,大量移民涌入美国,尤其是爱尔兰移民,他们深受马铃薯饥荒的影响。
With these people came Halloween customs out of which one of America's favorite holidays was formed.
随着这些人的到来,万圣节的习俗也随之形成,美国人最喜爱的节日之一也由此形成。
In keeping with the mischief, children would dress in costumes and be given money or fruit for artistic offerings like poetry, songs, or even jokes instead of prayers.
为了营造恶作剧的氛围,孩子们会穿上化装服,用诗歌、歌曲、甚至笑话等来代替祈祷,并得到钱或水果。
By the late 19th century, children were playing seemingly innocuous pranks on their small local communities.
到了19世纪末,孩子们开始在当地的小社区里玩一些似乎无害的恶作剧。
Adults would soon find incentive to dissuade children from playing pranks.
大人很快就找到劝阻孩子们恶作剧的动机。
Enter trick or treating.
最终演变成“不给糖就捣蛋”。
The 20th century would finally see the commercialization of Halloween.
20世纪,万圣节终于商业化了。
By the 1920s and 30's, Halloween merchandise evolved to pre-made costumes for both children and adults.
到了20世纪20年代和30年代,万圣节的商品演变为给儿童和成人预先制作的化装服。
After World War Two in the 1950s, the economic boom had candy manufacturers getting on the Halloween bandwagon.
第二次世界大战后的50年代,经济的繁荣使得糖果制造商也加入了万圣节的行列。
Movies and TV are also largely responsible for the proliferation of Halloween as a mass market holiday.
电影和电视也在很大程度上推动了万圣节作为大众节日的普及。
Cinemas in the 50s offered scary movie festivals.
20世纪50年代的电影院设置恐怖电影节。
And in the 60s, the new television industry began running Halloween specials during Halloween season.
在60年代,电视台开始在万圣节季播放万圣节特辑。
By 2015, the National Retail Federation predicted spending on Halloween could reach $6.9 billion.
美国零售联合会预计,到2015年,万圣节的消费将达到69亿美元。
Whether you believe that we've lost the meaning or not, Halloween has since evolved far beyond the days of pagan fire festivals.
不管你是否认为我们已经失去了万圣节本来的意义,但它已经远远超越了异教徒的火节。
For more than a month out of the year, costume stores show up out of nowhere.
每年有一个多月的时间,服装商店会突然冒出来。
Candy corn and Halloween-themed candies dominate whole aisles of grocery stores, and spooky shows and movies build out entire TV station schedules.
玉米糖和万圣节主题的糖果占据了杂货店的货架,恐怖的节目和电影占据了整个电视台。
Whether you like it or not, whether you want to dress up as a gruesome goblin or a sexy cat, or ignore the holiday altogether, Halloween has stood the test of time and proven itself as a holiday that's here to stay.
无论你喜欢与否,无论你是想打扮成一个可怕的妖精还是一只性感的猫,还是完全忽略这个节日,万圣节都经受住了时间的考验,证明了自己是一个经久不衰的节日。
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