Halloween

Halloween is a date celebrated on the night of October 31^st. It is a celebration that is mostly practiced in United States and Canada where children would wear costumes and go to the people’s homes saying the phrase: “Trick or Treat!” to ask for candy or sweets, then the people would give it to them. This practice originally involved a threat. A threat is a statement indicating the possibility of something harmful that is about to happen. In this case, a threat could be explained as: “Give me a treat or I will play a trick on you.” However, children today usually do not play tricks even though they do not get any treats, although there are also some children who do play pranks to make fun of people. In addition, some people, other than kids, also dress up as ghosts, witches, or other scary creatures for Halloween.

The origins of Halloween started with the pagan holiday Samhain and was largely based on the Celtic religious traditions. About 2, 000 years ago, lived a group of people called the Celts. The Celts’ lives revolved around growing their food and they considered the end of the year to be the end of harvest season. So they celebrated new year’s eve each year on October 31^st, the celebration was called Samhain, named after their Lord of the Dead. Samhain was presided over by Celtic priest called Druids. To celebrate Samhain, the Druids built huge sacred bonfires around which the Celts gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to their ancient gods. During that celebration the Celts dressed up in costumes consisting of animal heads and skins.

Back then, winter was the time of year that was associated with human death. The Celts believed that in the night that marked the end of summer and the beginning of winter, the boundary between worlds of the living and the dead will blur, allowing ghosts of the dead to return to earth. They also thought that the presence of ghosts made it easier for the Druids to predict the future.

Eventually, the Celts were conquered by the romans and about the year 43 A.D., two roman festivals were combined with the Celtic Samhain festival. The first roman festival was called Feralia, a day in late October when the romans traditionally commemorated the passing of the dead. The second day was a day to honor Pomona, the roman goddess of fruit and trees. By 800 A.D., the influence of Christianity spread into the Celtic lands. In the seventh century, the Celtic festival was replaced with a church-sanctioned holiday by Pop Boniface IV designated on November 1st which was known as All Saints’ Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. The combined and updated celebration was also called All-hallows and the night before it began to be called All-hallows Eve and eventually, Halloween.

Birthday

Most people find their birthdays special and memorable. Maybe because birthdays only come once in a year. It is an occasion when a person celebrates the anniversary of their birth. Birthdays are usually celebrated in numerous cultures, often with a gift, a party, or a rite of passage. Even many religions celebrate the birth of their founders with special holidays like Christmas and Buddha’s birthday. Of course during birthdays, a person’s age also adds up to another year and when reaching age-specific milestones, it confers into particular rights and responsibilities. At certain ages, one may become eligible to leave full-time education, or become subjected to military in some countries, and have consent to sexual intercourse, to marry and to marry without parental consent, to run and vote in the election, to consume alcohol ad to obtain a driver’s license.  

 Many cultures also have their own way of celebrating their coming of age birthdays. In Canada and United States, families often mark a girl’s 16^th birthday with a “sweet sixteen” celebration. Sweet sixteen parties mark a coming of age, the point at which a person transitions into adulthood. Like a wedding, this event can be extremely formal, casual or semi-formal. It can be celebrated as modest parties at home with close family or large affairs with hired stylists, DJs, yachts, expensive gowns and dresses, and hotel ballrooms. While in Philippines, girls on their 18^th birthday or boys in their 21^st birthday celebrate a debut. Debuts happen when a Filipino girl customarily throws a large party, complete with her own hand-picked entourage of 18 individuals or multiple sets of 18, and are usually formal. Recent additions to the ceremony are the 18 treasures in which 18 individuals each present the debutante with a gift. These usually also involves a speech from each individual.

In many parts of the world, an individual’s birthday is celebrated with a party where a specially-made cake is usually decorated with lettering and the person’s age, is presented. The cake is traditionally studded with the same number of lit candles as the age of the individual or a number candle representing their age. Then the celebrant will usually make a silent wish and attempt to blow out the candles in one breath; If successful, a tradition holds that the wish will be granted. In many cultures, it is believed that the wish must be kept a secret otherwise it won’t come true.

Of course, most countries also celebrate the birthdays of historically significant people such as national heroes or founders and are often commemorated by an official holiday marking the anniversary of their birth. Catholic saints are remembered by a liturgical feast. In some historically roman catholic and eastern orthodox countries such as Italy, Spain, France, some parts of Germany, and throughout Latin America, it is common to have a Saint’s day. It is celebrated much in the same way as a birthday and is held on the official day of a saint with the same Christian name as the birthday person.

Therefore, birthdays are celebrated in most parts of the world. It is celebrated in different traditions and cultures signifying its importance to a certain individual. Birthdays are not only celebrations for a living person but also for those who have passed away. It is a special occasion on which an individual looks forward to and will only happen once in year. Birthdays are usually happily celebrated and a day when an individual spends time with his/her family or close friends.

Valuable Lessons in Life

One of the major things in life that one may or may not have realize at some point in their life, is that family is all you can have in your life that will be truly of importance to you. A family may be those people whom you share a blood-relation with or those people whom you don’t need to share the same blood in order to be considered as your family, because you treat them as something special to you. Family,  can be considered as your home and has a very special place in your life and heart. It isn’t really necessary to have a blood-relation with them.

Shiny and expensive material things don’t matter when it comes to family and love. One day, you might lose your own life and realize that those material things you possess don’t actually matter especially in the afterlife. Instead, choose to spend time wisely, do things that you have not done before, let yourself out and explore, but keep in mind the limitations too. Spend time loving not only yourself, but youre family too. If not, remember that you might regret it in the future.

Finding love is also important. And I don’t only mean the romantic-kind-of-love. Finding love can be on all aspects. Finding something that you would love to do, to spend time with, and will hold a special place in your heart. Find a something good, not something that will only hurt you. Yes, it can be from another person who you would like to spend your time with, even for a short or the longest of time whether it can be love for family, and friends. As long as you find a reason that will serve as your inspiration to live life to the fullest.

Have faith in everything you do. Especially during those times when you are facing difficult situations and you feel like giving up. But always remember not to give up. Engrave in your mind, the oldest line in the book: “Try and try until you succeed” and keep in mind, that everybody makes a mistake and that nobody is perfect. Some people might be expecting something more in you, and you might feel as If you are becoming pressured and you don’t want them to lose their trust in you. But even when you fail, remember to always stand up. Expectations are just expectations, you are who you want to be and if you can’t do it, you can try but never give up because this will help in you in facing your fears and make you stronger.

Be who you are. Don’t try to change yourself for other people. But at the same time, also be considerate of others, if there’s a reason why people are distancing themselves away from you, or you have something that may seem negative to others. Try opening up in a good way, don’t make a façade, and don’t be mean. Being who you are has a huge impact in your social life, if you feel like you don’t fit in and you feel like you are straining yourself to be someone who you are not, then stop pretending. We all have our own uniqueness. If you feel like something needs to change, then you can. Only if you know that you’re doing the right thing.

There are still a lot of valuable lessons in life. They just need to be discovered and realized. Though life may be hard sometimes, always remember these things and think of them as your light. A guide to life that will inspire you to be successful, or will inspire you to be a great person. Treat life as lemonade perhaps, sometimes it's sweet, sour or bitter.

The Effects of a Broken Family to a Child's Development

A broken family is believed to be the cause of child’s mislead in life. Some people think that, the reason why some children behave so rashly, indifferently, or become rebellious against their parents is due to having a parent who is divorced or separated. Which is also one of the factors that greatly affect the child’s development on education, and may cause social, emotional, and even relational issues for children, and adolescent teens.  

On the emotional aspect a broken family may affect a child’s development is when after the parents’ divorce, the child can harbour strong negative feelings or resentment against their parents. While older children may seem to show less negative emotional effect from the separation of their parents. It is not actually a good thing because they are most likely to bottle up their feelings. This emotional suppression causes an emotional deficit to children. And the result may be depression or poor emotional stability of a child.

If a child is emotionally unstable, this will also affect the child’s social life and education. Because in order for a child to develop a good social life and be able to focus on his/her education, the child must develop a good emotional stability. If a child is emotionally stressed, it can stunt a child’s academic progress and will contribute to a poor educational performance. Which can also lead to more problems in the future and these problems often develop over time as the child grows up. The common problems are children being pushed to drugs, pre-marital sex, and violence.

Children with less emotional stability may also develop a personality which is cynical, introverted, or close-minded. Of course in developing a social life, children must open up to other children to play or communicate. But having a broken family can cause a child to have trust issues. Having trust issues makes it more difficult for a child to open up to others and make friends because the child is unable to be obsolete to another person. Since everyone is born as relational beings, having no friends or a social life can be very lonely. And even as a child, people who are experiencing loneliness are more prone to commit crimes and suicide.

Therefore a broken-family is large factor that will greatly affect a child’s life. As a child, having a broken-family is difficult to deal with especially during his/her crucial years in development. Through the years while the child is growing up, problems will continue to suffice and arouse more problems to come. Children are not supposed to be dealing with huge problems, because whilst young they need more support from both of their parents, instead of children having to suffer for their own parents’ problem. That is why parents should be well-aware in considering the psychological effects of their actions to their children.