A Journey Through Time, Traditions, and a Monetary Birth

Happy All Hallow’s Eve, Hallowe’en, and Happy Spooky Season!

Ready for me to sprout that boring history to y’all?

No? Perfect, here it is! You’re welcome! Lol

Spooky Season, Halloween, Hallowe’en, Hallow-e’en, Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, All Saints’ Eve, or Bitcoin’s Birthday, You Decide!

History of Hallowe’en

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, “Spooky Season” and the Sanderson Sisters were not yet in existence, though, All Hallows’ Eve began originating from the ancient Celtic festival, Samhain, which monumentalized the end of harvest season and the commencement of winter.

It was believed that on All Hallows’ Eve, the periphery between the living and the dead blurred, allowing spirits to roam freely. Individuals initiated bonfires and wore costumes to ward off unscrupulous, or malevolent entities.

Over time, All Hallow’s Eve evolved and integrated Christian constituents, All Saints’ Day (November 1st) and All Souls’ Day (November 2nd), during which Christ-followers commemorate and pray for the deceased, especially saints and familiar departed souls.

Therefore, incorporating Christian observances alongside its pagan and secular traditions, Hallowe’en is one of the few holidays that became a beautiful blend of spiritual and festive traditions celebrated and adored by many cultures, races, and religions.

Hallow-e’en Correct Spelling & History

I bet you were thinking, “WTH, Sam!? Spelling ‘Hallowe’en’ this way!” But, fun fact! If you search Halloween in the dictionary, you’ll find this “misspelling.”

Huh? Why does “Hallowe’en” appear to have a misplaced apostrophe that a drunk slob would scatter across their carelessly written social media copy?! 

Further, who demanded or paid off the dictionary to accept “Hallowe’en’ as a monstrous apostrophized YET acceptable term?! Well, surprisingly, the word originated with that apostrophe.

Say What!? Yes, October 31 was not the linguistic focus when the word “Halloween” was first written down in English; rather, November 1 was. 

All Saints’ Day is celebrated on November 1st in the Western Christian liturgical calendar as a feast day dedicated to honoring all the Christian saints. 

However, it wasn’t until the 16th century that All Saints’ Day was given its current name. Before then, it was called All Hallows’ Day, or simply All Hallows, as we took it from the Old English. The adjective hallow is derived from the Old English word hālig, meaning “holy.”

The evening before All Hallows’ became known as All Hallows’ Eve. Important feast days typically began the night before with a vigil, so All Hallows’ was historically especially significant—one 17th-century source notes that “the three grand days are All-hallown, Candlemass, and Ascension day.”

In the sixteenth century, Hallow-e’en started to popularize. Although there is still some evidence supporting the apostrophized variant, the term “Hallow-e’en’ or ‘Hallowe’en” started to lose its apostrophe in the eighteenth century.

2008: Dead Apostrophe Births Magick Internet Money? 

The mythos around Bitcoin is one of its most potent features. 

The decision to release the BTC White Paper on a magical night that unites many together and allows us to embody an alternative persona adds further mystery to the amazing beginnings of Bitcoin. 

The motivation behind Satoshi Nakamoto’s choice to publish the Bitcoin white paper on Hallowe’en is still a mystery that is up for debate. Several explanations have been proposed to account for this timing.

According to some, the release date might be a reference to Martin Luther’s Reformation, which broke with the corrupt Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages and allowed people to essentially buy their way out of crimes by giving money to the church. This is a comparable departure from established banking systems, which the government bailed out or pardoned for the transgressions that contributed to the subprime mortgage catastrophe.

Some others suggest it may be related to the old pagan festival of Samhain, which ushers in winter and signifies the end of the harvest season. Whatever the motivation, the decision to debut Bitcoin on Halloween lends even more mystery to its already mysterious beginnings.

Bitcoins Three Birthdays

The Bitcoin OG’s celebrate not once a year for our beloved digital decentralized currency. Nien, we celebrate THREE! 

The first BTC birthday kick-off started on 18 August 2008, when the domain name Bitcoin.org site was registered. 

The second cake-worthy existence day is today, October 31st when a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was shared on the cypherpunk mailing list.  This technical paper detailed a protocol for using a peer-to-peer network to generate what was described as “a system for electronic transactions without relying on trust-“ The white paper was posted on a cryptography mailing list and later made available to the public on a popular cryptocurrency forum.

In this groundbreaking, magical document, Nakamoto introduced a nearly heavenly concept, a decentralized digital currency called Bitcoin. 

The whitepaper laid out the key principles and technical details of how Bitcoin would work. It addressed the need for a trustless, peer-to-peer system that allowed individuals to transact directly without relying on financial intermediaries like banks.

Key highlights from the famous All Hallow’s Eve white paper include:

• Spook-less Decentralization: Nakamoto proposed a network of nodes (computers) that would collectively maintain a public ledger, known as the blockchain, without the need for a central authority.
• No Blood-Induced Proof-of-Work: The whitepaper introduced the concept of “proof of work” as the consensus mechanism to validate and secure transactions on the network. Miners would solve complex mathematical puzzles to add new blocks to the blockchain.
• Dead to Inflation Lovers, A Limited Supply: Nakamoto specified that there would be a maximum supply of 21 million Bitcoins, making it a deflationary digital currency.
• And something the government hates when they can’t control: Security: The whitepaper discussed the cryptographic techniques used to secure the Bitcoin network and users’ wallets.