Monday, October 30, 2017

Why Do We Celebrate the Night of the Phantoms?

Hi Jammers! Naffy here.

The Night of the Phantoms (Halloween) is just around the corner. Literally. It's tomorrow, people.

Which means the day after that is the first day of November, which means it's almost Thanksgiving, which means we're one step closer to Christmas.

My, this year has gone by so fast!

But that's not the point. Today, we're going to be discussing the holiday that is upon us at the moment, by answering a question that was recently brought up by another fellow AJ blogger named sarahkey8.

So... why exactly DO we celebrate the Night of the Phantoms?

Well, I believe this can be better explained by first asking, why do we celebrate Halloween?

Halloween is a combination of pagan and Christian traditions. Historically, it originated from the festival of Samhain, which celebrates the end of the harvest season. The official day for this festival was November 1st, but the pagans believed that on the night before Samhain (October 31st), spirits of the dead would return to purposefully destroy their crops and wreak havoc.

Then, in the 8th century, Christians turned the festival into All Saints Day, and named October 31st All Hallows Eve, which was later shortened to Halloween.

The pagans would dress up and wear costumes to prevent the spirits from detecting them. People would also place Jack-O-Lanterns, carved out of turnips, potatoes, or even beets, on their doorsteps to ward off the evil spirits.

Clearly, Halloween has a very religious, interesting background, and traditions have been going strong ever since it was born. However, this does not give us an exact answer as to why we celebrate the Night of the Phantoms in Animal Jam.

The Night of the Phantoms has been described as ''a night where the phantoms come out to play''. Do the phantoms actually PLAY like good little children do, or do they cause chaos throughout the land like the evil spirits?

Aren't phantoms supposed to be... y'know... our ENEMIES? Infamous for their mischievous acts that bring destruction and grief to Jamaa?

WHY ARE WE CELEBRATING THEM!?!? THEY'RE EVIL!!!

At least the reasoning behind all of the Halloween traditions make SENSE! People in ancient times weren't celebrating the evil spirits. They were only trying to send them away!

AND WHY THE HECK DO WE KEEP PHANTOMS AS PETS!!!???!!?!?!

*sighs*

Okay. That got a little out of hand there, but do you get what I'm trying to say?

I understand that not everyone celebrates Halloween, so AJHQ did what they had to do in attempt to keep the peace between all of their players. Same goes for the Jamaalidays and Freedom Day.

There are just a few... mmm... plot holes, I suppose.

That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know what you guys think in the comments about the Night of the Phantoms.

Adios!

18 comments:

  1. Ooooohhh! Okay! I totally understand now, where all this Halloween stuff comes from! Thanks! You learn something new everyday ;) Although I don't celebrate Halloween though :P

    I've also heard this thing with Christmas as well, I can't seem to remember it though..........

    Hey! You made posts in a row! Thinking of sticking to daily posts again by any chance? ;)

    sugarcat2

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    Replies
    1. Hehe, glad you liked the post! Sadly, I'm not continuing daily posts as of right now, but perhaps I will in the future. I just had a surge of ideas this past weekend, so I prepared a lot of material. :P

      Delete
    2. Nuuu!!! I better enjoy daily posts when they come! :D

      sugarcat2

      Delete
  2. Maybe some theorized lore that accounts for those plot holes is that, uh... maybe there was a treaty where the phantoms would only be allowed access to Jamaa for one month each year? Nothings written about this subject XD

    ~DoomyPanda

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  3. I do believe I read somewhere that we celebrate NOTP to trick and confuse the Phantoms, so they can't attack us. That's an interesting theory, isn't it?

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    Replies
    1. Hmm... I think I remember reading that somewhere too. I wonder where it's from.

      Delete
  4. Great post Naffy! :3

    This is the story of Halloween that I believe, I don't think Halloween is evil, And I've known the history of it for quite awhile now. I also agree with the story we're people wore just protecting themselves by wearing costumes, I just think of Halloween as a holiday that was evil along time ago, But now it's all just a fun celebration and there's no more evil spirits around. Even if there's wore spirits scaring people, That was over a 1000 years ago! And I just believe that no one will be ever harmed and Halloween is just a silly o'l holiday with a dark history with carved potatoes as guards, I just don't believe in evil spirits and stuff. :3

    PS: I hope I'm not offending anyone! :(

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  5. I think that the pet phantoms are babies, and we have a chance to teach them not to, ya know, be bad. Also, this git me thinking, why do we have holidays in general? I mean, I know some people say that Christmas is supposed to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but it seems to have nothing to do with that. I don't really celebrate holidays because I don't see a point to it, but that's just my opinion :) Welp, I should leave before I rant for too long. Bye!

    ~glittergal624

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    Replies
    1. That's a good theory, too.

      Also, if you want to know more about why Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, and how Christmas traditions came to be, read this:

      http://www.history.com/news/ask-history/why-is-christmas-celebrated-on-december-25

      Delete
  6. Also, I just realized that I made a typo... *got

    ~glittergal624

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  7. Clearly pet phantoms are just naughty little children and adult phantoms are naughty little adults. We are kidnapping the naughty little children and enslaving them so that they become good little children.

    I don't actually know why I wrote that I'm tired ok

    enslaving children is not a joke though like what the heck aj we are literally KIDNAPPING BABY PHANTOMS AND KEEPING THEM AS PETS.


    I hope nobody takes this seriously lol
    -Kraft

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  8. Well, as for the pets its because they are 'nice'

    We literally let phantoms loose in Jamaa
    Can't anybody predict the danger? XD

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  9. We're not a Halloween family. I've been raised in a "Vampires do not honor God" household. No, my parent's aren't super strict, they just want to protect us from nightmares. Plus, Halloween has turned into something scary every year. If it were just the whole "candy thing" without scary decorations, then we probably would be. However, with all the zombies, it's kind of scary. Plus, ppeople thing it's funny to put razors in little kid's treats bags. Which is why it was surprising to me when I went trick or treating for the first time in 7th grade. What was even more suprising was my trick or treat buddies. They were zombies. I guess we're becoming more of a Halloween family now? Idk I'm in it for the candy. Tomorrow at school I'm wearing my Christmas gear XP and then trick or treating for the second time in my life as a penguin beanie baby.

    That went crazy...

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  10. Personally, I think we celebrate NOTP because of the real reason for Halloween. The Phantoms probably come out to invade on NOTP, hence the name, and the jammers dress up in order to trick them. Oh yeah, and that thing about the pet Phantoms. In this year's post about them, AJHQ stated that they came back "in hopes of being ADOPTED!" Maybe the baby Phantoms want to be nice or something for a change, and show that they aren't like their mean parents. Or... THEY'RE INFILTRATING JAMAA AND GIVING SECRETS ON ALL THE JAMMERS THAT ADOPT THEM!!!11! Conspiracy theory!!!
    ~awesomecutesmiles

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