You know why we celebrate Halloween? Come let’s read about it and make it more significant.
Halloween is celebrated on 31st October every year after Thanksgiving. Around 70% of Americans plan to take part in Halloween festivities in the years before 2020, making it a widely observed event in the country. However, in 2020, projected participation dropped to 58 percent, due to Covid-19 epidemic probably. In the United States, there are many ways to commemorate Halloween, with candy distribution and pumpkin carving being two of the most well-liked activities. Around 65% of Americans intended to celebrate Halloween in 2021.
What does history say about origins?
Given that Halloween touches on a fundamental aspect of the human condition—the interaction between the living and the dead—Halloween is one of the oldest customs in existence. The event still has metamorphosis as a major element because the commemoration originated from ancient ceremonies in remembrance to the change from summer to winter.
The same priests who spoke in prophesy marked the evening by erecting enormous bonfires that served as the center of nighttime events. People gets together in costume to hide from spirits, attempted fortune telling, feasted lavishly, and constructed lanterns out of gourds (remind you of anything?). People used to lit bonfires and wore costumes to ward off the ghosts.
These atheistic customs persisted until Christianity spread throughout the Celtic countries, at which point the holiday’s celebration became lower spirited. The Christian holiday known as All Souls’ Day, or “All-hallows,” is where the name “Halloween” originated. Additionally, since All-Hallows was observed on November 1, Samhain came to be known as “All Hallows Eve.”
What about the Halloween apples, though? They may have first appeared as a result of early Roman conquests and the Romans’ own fall festival, which was represented by an apple.
The great American ethnic diversity of immigrants gave rise to the Halloween that we know today. Public festivities honoring the harvest served as the start of our uniquely American version. These “play parties” were when neighbors would get together to tell ghost stories and other tales of the dead. However, it wasn’t until a significant influx of Irish immigrants throughout the 19th century that the holiday started to be observed widely across the nation. Children in America began knocking on doors to ask for goodies or “soul cakes” after learning this practice from their European counterparts.
Nothing gets you in the eerie spirit for Halloween faster than a classic horror film. Turning the lights off low while watching a movie causes your heart to race, your mind to scan the shadows for danger, and your body to jump up and down from the couch whenever there is a loud noise. However, new Halloween movies comes around every year. Some of them fade away, much like the fake blood from a costume, while others seep into your bones and remain there forever.
Isn’t it getting exciting now?
You can also stream Halloween movies like Hocus Pocus (1993), Halloween (1978) Halloween (2018) and many more if you want to feel fear around and then What if you don’t follow Halloween traditions? Then you got to watch Trick ‘r Treat (2007), there is no stopping. If you want funny warm hearted Halloween movie then go for Hubie Halloween (2020).
Now we know what this is about, so we need to see where it is celebrated the most and how?
Traditional Halloween Foods are: –
Barmbrack (Ireland)
Bonfire toffee (Great Britain)
Candy apples/toffee apples (Great Britain and Ireland)
Candy apples, candy corn, candy pumpkins (North America)
Chocolate
Monkey nuts (peanuts in their shells) (Ireland and Scotland)
Caramel apples
Caramel corn
Colcannon (Ireland; see below)
Halloween cake
Sweets/candy
Novelty candy shaped like skulls, pumpkins, bats, worms, etc.
Roasted pumpkin seeds
Roasted sweet corn
Soul cakes
Pumpkin Pie
Traditional Halloween dresses are: –
Halloween costumes have historically been fashioned after characters like devils, vampires, ghosts, and skeletons. Over time, the costume options grew to include well-known fictional characters, famous people, and archetypal figures like ninjas, princesses or anything scary as such.
For kids, trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween celebration. Children dressed in costumes visit houses asking for presents like candy or occasionally cash and asking, “Trick or treat?” If no treat is delivered, the word “trick” indicates a “threat” to cause harm to the homeowners or their property. The act is thought to have its origins in the ghosting-related mediaeval activity of mumming.
In England, until 1930, people would dress in white clothing to symbolize their souls and then go door-to-door singing in exchange for prayers and treats. Guising is a traditional Halloween habit in Scotland and Ireland, where children disguised in costumes go from door to house asking for food, cake, candy, money, or coins.
The vast majority of the Halloween postcards that were printed between the turn of the 20th century and the 1920s feature kids, but they are not typically trick-or-treaters. Due to the notion that it is safer than knocking on doors, trunk-or-treating has become more popular, which appeals to parents.
Do we know the story behind Halloween symbols? It seems to be interesting though.
A carved turnip, pumpkin, or other root vegetable lantern is known as a jack-o’-lantern (or jack lantern), and it is frequently connected to the Halloween celebration. Its name refers to the alleged phenomena of odd lights, often known as will-o’-the-wisps or jack-o’-lanterns, flashing over peat bogs. The name is also connected to Stingy Jack, an Irish mythology about a drinker who made a deal with Satan and was condemned to wander the Earth with only a hollowed-out turnip to guide him.
Skull shapes, which in the Christian tradition refers to Golgotha, is used as “a reminder of death and the transitory quality of human life” and thus appears in memento mori and vanitas compositions. Skulls are therefore a common Halloween decoration, along with corn husks and scarecrows, Halloween is often associated with themes of death, evil, and mythical monsters. Black cats, which have long been connected to horror and witches, are also frequently represented. Halloween’s traditional colors are black, orange, and occasionally purple.
Tips to celebrate Halloween 2022: –
1. Wear up a costume for the occasion! There are countless options for what you can wear on Halloween, ranging from traditional superhero outfits to inventive DIY designs to something scary.
2. Carve a pumpkin for Halloween! This traditional Halloween decoration is ideal for spreading holiday cheer. Scoop out the pulp and seeds from your favorite pumpkin, then have fun with the carving.
3. Visit local candy stores! There is no better way to enjoy Halloween than by knocking on doors and obtaining candy from your neighbors.
4. Go to a Halloween celebration! There are many ways to spend Halloween with friends, whether you host your own gathering or attend a friend’s.
5. Take in some eerie entertainment! Whether you’re reading a ghost story, watching a terrifying movie, or visiting a nearby haunted home. Have fun and stay safe this Halloween, however you decide to celebrate!
6. One can join few well-known parades to make more interesting like New York’s Village Halloween Parade, Carnival Halloween Parade, Derry, West Hollywood Halloween Carnival, Halloween in Tokyo, Japan or can have Halloween Party all night with family and friends. These are few best tips to celebrate Halloween.
7. The majority of American families spend Halloween dressing up in costumes, going to parties, visiting haunted houses, and carving jack-o-lanterns out of pumpkins or gourds. Many people decide to use decorations like imitation spider webs, bones, and ghouls to create a gloomy, frightening atmosphere in their houses.
8. The most common way to observe the holiday may be trick-or-treating. “Trick or Treat!” is shouted as children and adults dress up and knock-on doors. According to this idiom, if the host does not offer their guest a treat, a trick might happen. Naturally, in the unlikely scenario where a child leaves without anything, he or she rarely follows through on this commitment. However, during Halloween night, criminal mischief also happens in many places.
Why we celebrate Halloween?
Colombia, Canada, New Zealand, Vietnam, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Romania, Moldova, Iceland, Germany, Lithuania, United Kingdom, North Macedonia, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Norway, Mexico, Latvia, Armenia, Bermuda, Australia, United States, Gibraltar, Canada, New Zealand and also India.
In India we see this tradition getting along in young generations, getting dressed as scary one or scary makeups, and visit different houses in neighbors to receive the offers of sweets, candy and much more.
One also joins Halloween parties at hotels, parks with scary outfit, just to observed as cultural integration. Yes, we can follow the same tips to celebrate Halloween.
So, now we know why we celebrate Halloween, this is a fun tradition to be celebrated with care and significant love all around. Isn’t it exciting.