CitéStars celebrated Halloween with David Donadéi

On October 31, David Donadéi gathered his friends in Villemomble to celebrate Halloween. To immortalize this evening, many guests were present around the president of the association. We were able to meet Didier Six, Sylvie Ortéga, Thierry Samitier.

The children dressed as monsters or witches took the opportunity to collect candy from the celebrities after saying the magic phrase « treat or trick ». It was also an opportunity to taste various rums.

What is Halloween?

Celebrated mainly in the United States and Great Britain, Halloween is « the festival of lanterns ». It corresponds to the story of Jack-o’lantern, and linked to an ancient Irish legend.

Jack was a blacksmith who had the habit of drinking, which led him to deceive the devil twice. The latter then came to claim his soul in exchange for transforming into a coin to give him a last drink but once transformed, Jack took out a cross and the devil could not come back to him. The devil then promised Jack not to come back for the next 10 years.

Ten years later, the devil reappeared and this time, Jack asked him to pick an apple from a tree. However, he placed a cross at the foot of the tree and locked him on it. It was then that the devil promised Jack to spare him from hell if he let him fall. However, once dead, Jack was rejected from heaven because of all his sins and he wandered in the world of the living carrying an eternal flame placed inside a turnip, a gift that the devil had given him.

During Halloween night, carved pumpkins are displayed, they show Jack that there is no place for him there. They also mean that Jack would go from house to house asking the question, « Trick or treat? », to which it was preferable to answer « sacrifice » to avoid being struck with excommunication, in the Catholic and Orthodox churches. There is also a second meaning related to the combination of several stories and a mixture of cultures. The term « Trick or treat » is said to come from the drift of the custom according to which in ancient times, beggars would go from house to house during the night of All Saints to ask for offerings. Those who gave alms received a promise (I will pray for your dead)

The true origin of Halloween goes back to the Celtic pagan festival of Samhain in Ireland and northern France. This festival celebrated the end of summer and the beginning of winter, a period often associated with death in many cultures. On the night of October 31, the dead dress up as the living to visit them. Celebrated on All Saints’ Eve, this holiday is colored orange and black. It takes its name from the old English « All Hallow Even ». It is a Christian holiday during which all the saints are celebrated and is followed on November 2 by a day of prayers for the dead. However, it is not a sad holiday: people dress up and have a meal while playing at scaring each other, not forgetting a decoration with sound and light.

© IMPACT EUROPEAN

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