Despite its distinctly modern imagery — kids in cute vampire costumes, pugs in cute vampire costumes, pumpkins carved to look like pugs — Halloween and many of the traditions surrounding it can be traced back at least two millennia, to the Celtic festival of Samhain.

尽管万圣节具有独特的现代特色-比如身穿可爱的吸血鬼服装的孩子们和哈巴狗，还有雕刻成哈巴狗样式的南瓜，但是万圣节以及围绕万圣节的许多传统都可以追溯至至少两千年前，也就是凯尔特人的萨温节。

Pug：哈巴狗

Millennium：一千年

Samhain：萨温节

Clearly, much has changed since then; across ancient Britain and Ireland, Oct. 31 was more than an excuse for fun and frivolity. “To examine the history of Halloween,” writes the historian Nicholas Rogers, “is to recognize that it is not a holiday that has been celebrated the same way over the centuries, nor one whose meaning is fixed.” For the Celts it was a shift of season that marked the border between summer and winter, between life and death, and between our earthly realm and the underworld.

很明显，从那时起，这个节日发生了极大的改变；从古代的不列颠到爱尔兰，10月31日不仅仅是娱乐和狂欢的借口。历史学家Nicholas Rogers写道：“要想了解万圣节的历史，我们就要知道，在数个世纪以来，万圣节的庆祝方法并非一成不变，而万圣节的含义也并非一成不变。”对于凯尔特人而言，万圣节代表着季节交替，它就是夏季和冬季、生与死以及尘世间和死后世界之间的分界线。

Samhain (pronounced SAH-win) came after harvest time but before the cold, desolate months. Rogers describes it as a period of “supernatural intensity heralding the onset of winter.” In that window, on the cusp of enclosing darkness, the Celts believed that the veil separating the human and spirit worlds lifted.

萨温节在秋收之后，寒冬来临之前举行。Rogers将这一时期称为“预示着冬天将至的超灵异节。”在这个冬季，在黑暗到达的顶点，凯尔特人认为分隔尘世和死后世界的屏障将会拉开。

Banshees, elves and other ghoulish creatures were thought to emerge from the sídh, a network of mystical mounds, to roam the countryside. Ghosts were thought to temporarily walk the land of the living on their journey to the afterlife. Unperturbed, villagers lit giant bonfires to ward off these spirits, donned animal skins and masks to evade their notice, and left food out to appease them. Celtic priests, called Druids, also believed the liminal status of Samhain helped them to prophesy about the future.

人们认为报丧女妖、精灵以及其他鬼魂会从纵横交错的土丘中出来并在乡野间游荡。人们认为鬼魂在前往死后世界的路上会暂时在活人行走的路上行走。镇定的村民们燃起巨大的篝火来避开这些鬼魂。他们还会披挂上动物皮并戴上面具以避免引起鬼魂的注意并给他们留一些食物以安抚他们。凯尔特的牧师，被称为德鲁伊特也认为萨温节的分界状态可以帮助他们预测未来。

Banshee：报丧女妖（爱尔兰传说中以哀嚎预报死讯的女妖）

Mound：土丘、小丘、土墩

Unperturbed：镇定的

Don：披上、戴上、穿上

Liminal：界限

Overall, Rogers writes, “it represented a time out of time, a brief interval when the normal order of the universe is suspended.”

总体而言，Rogers写道：“它代表着逝去的时光，一个宇宙正常秩序暂停的短暂时期。”

Reshaped by the Church

被教堂重塑

Ironically, though many modern Christians have denounced Halloween as satanic, its very name is derived from a Catholic holiday.

讽刺的是，尽管许多现代的基督徒谴责万圣节并认为它是邪恶的，但是万圣节这个名字却恰恰来自于天主教的节日。

Satanic：邪恶的，崇拜撒旦的

On May 13 of 609 C.E., Pope Boniface IV began an anniversary that would come to be known as All Saints’ Day — a time to honor saints and martyrs — when he dedicated the Pantheon in Rome as a church. Later, in the mid-eighth century, Pope Gregory III changed the date (perhaps strategically) to coincide with Samhain. Many scholars believe that as the church spread across Europe, it systematically supplanted local celebrations in an effort to assimilate the pagans under its dominion.

在公元609年5月13日，当教皇博尼法斯四世将罗马的万神庙敬献为教堂时，他创造了一个纪念日，这个纪念日也被称为 “诸圣日”-一个尊崇圣徒和殉教者的日子。随后，在8世纪中期，教皇格列高列三世更改了这一日期（也许是战略性的）并使其与萨温节重合。许多学者认为，随着教堂在欧洲遍地开花，它系统性地取代了当地的庆典活动并试图将异教徒归化。

Martyrs：殉教者

Pantheon：万神庙

assimilate ：吸收、归化。

Thus, Nov. 1 was dedicated to all saints, or “hallows,” an archaic term for holy personages. The night preceding it, Oct. 31, came to be known as All Hallows’ Eve, a name shortened eventually to Halloween. A few centuries later, Nov. 2 was dubbed All Souls’ Day, an opportunity to remember the dead; this evolution meshed well with the Celts’ longstanding practices at that time of year.

如今，11月1日被敬献给所有的圣徒，或“hallows”，圣人的古语。11月1日的前一夜，即10月31日，也被称为“万圣节前夕”，并随后缩短成“万圣节”。几个世纪后，11月2日被命名为“追思节”，一个纪念死者的节日；这一节日的发展最终与凯尔特人源远流长的古老习俗完美融合。

Still, the festival clung to many of its old ideas throughout this religious blending and Samhain’s influence never fully vanished from the newly Christian holiday. Throughout the Middle Ages, the fire ceremonies and masquerades remained, although entirely new rituals arose as well.

时至今日，这个节日在宗教的融合中仍然保留了许多传统的思想，而萨温节的影响也始终萦绕在这个新的基督教节日当中。在整个中世纪，火祭和化装舞会始终存在，尽管一个全新的仪式也已经开始出现。

Trick-or-treating, for example, has roots in the medieval practice of “souling.” Poor supplicants went door to door, offering to pray for souls in purgatory in exchange for food (typically “soul cakes”). They often carried hollowed-out turnips with candles inside, the forebears of jack-o-lanterns.

比如，不给糖就捣蛋，可以追溯至中世纪的“索灵”传统。穷困的祈求者挨家挨户主动为在炼狱中受难的灵魂祈祷以换取食物（一般叫做“灵魂饼”）。他们通常带着中间被挖空的胡萝卜并在里面放上蜡烛，而这就是南瓜灯的前身。

Supplicant：祈求者、

Purgatory：炼狱

Forebear：祖宗

In later years, especially in Ireland and Scotland, the occasion drew hordes of mischievous revelers to the streets. There they played pranks, particularly on unlucky and detested neighbors. “Mimicking the malignant spirits who were widely believed to be abroad,” Rogers writes, “gangs of youths blocked up chimneys, rampaged cabbage patches, battered doors, unhinged gates, and unstabled horses.”

几年之后，特别是在爱尔兰和苏格兰，这个节日吸引了大批顽皮捣蛋的狂欢者们来到大街上。在那里，他们通过恶作剧来捉弄那些倒霉和令人讨厌的邻居们。Rogers写道：“大批的年轻人模仿被认为在外面游荡的、满怀恶意的鬼魂。他们堵住烟囱，在圆白菜地里横冲直撞，使劲拍门，取下大门上的铰链并把马匹从马厩中放出来。”

Mischievous：顽皮捣蛋

Reveler：狂欢者

Halloween, Then and Now

万圣节，过去与现在

In some places, a synthesis of these Catholic, pagan and secular Halloween rites thrived into the modern era. Then, during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as millions of Irish immigrants made their way to America, Halloween’s popularity soared in the West as well.

在某些地方，天主教、异教徒以及世俗万圣节的各种仪式相互混杂在一起并成为现代的主流。随后，在19世纪末期和20世纪初期，随着数以百万计爱尔兰移民前往美洲大陆，万圣节也开始在西方流行起来。

Rite：仪式

Not everyone approved of the import, however. Many Puritans considered it “an unnecessary concession to the Antichrist,” Rogers writes. Others simply abhorred the rowdiness, vandalism and occasional violence it inspired. Authorities attempted to tamp down the merrymaking, resulting in the tamer method of trick-or-treating we see today.

并非所有人都对舶来品持支持的态度。许多清教徒认为万圣节是对“反对基督者不必要的退让，”Rogers写道。其他人只是反感万圣节所带来的喧闹、恶意破坏以及偶尔的暴力。面对当权机构的打压，这个习俗慢慢演化成一种更加温和的，正如我们今天所见的“不给糖就捣蛋”的风格。

Antichrist：反对基督者

Abhor：讨厌

At that point, Halloween was ripe for commercialization, with candy, costumes and decorations presenting major business opportunities. Oct. 31 — at various times a harvest festival, a requiem for the faithfully departed or a night of mischief — transformed into a full-fledged consumer holiday. This year, Americans are expected to spend a record $10 billion on their spooky paraphernalia and tasty treats.

也就是在那个时候，万圣节已经开始商业化，而糖果、服装和装饰也创造了巨大的商机。10月31日，曾经的丰收节，对忠实离去的人的追思或捣蛋之夜已经演变成一个十足的商业节日。今年，美国人预计将花费创纪录的100亿美元以购置怪异的装备和美味的小食。

Requiem：追思弥撒

paraphernalia ：装备

Yet Halloween still bears the vestiges of its earlier forms, even the 2,000-year-old Samhain festival. When we celebrate this constantly reinvented tradition, we pay homage (knowingly or not) to the beliefs and worldviews of the long-gone groups that molded it. It’s easy to imagine that, as the veil between our world and theirs lifts at the close of the month, they might peer across and recognize something of themselves in us.

尽管如此，万圣节仍然还保留着早些时候的痕迹，甚至是已有2000年历史的萨温节。当我们庆祝这一节日时，我们向塑造这一节日的、早已逝去的群体的信仰和世界观致敬（无论是有意还是无意）。我们很容易想象，在这个月末，当把我们的世界和前人世界隔开的幕布慢慢升起，他们也许也会看着我们并发现他们的一些传统已经融入到我们的生活里。

Vestige：痕迹

pay homage to: 致敬

Source：Discover  翻译&编辑：译锐翻译Susan