Halloween is a well-known American holiday on October 31. People dressed up in costumes and lit bonfires to ward off spirits on that day, as it was believed that the souls of the dead returned to their homes. After reading this article, you will learn about “what is Halloween?” and “how it is celebrated worldwide.” So, stay tuned!
Ancient Origins of Halloween
Samhain was an ancient feast when Halloween first appeared. The Celts celebrated the beginning of their new year on November 1. The Celts were a people who lived 2,000 years ago, mainly in the territory that is now comprised of northern France, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. On this day, the end of the summer season and the start of winter is celebrated. They believed that spirits take a round on earth and connect to humans.
The Celtic people thought that the line separating the living and the dead became unclear before new year’s night. They remember Samhain on October 31, the night that was considered to mark the return of the dead. Celts believed that the presence of supernatural spirits made it easier for the Celtic priests to make predictions of causing difficulties and harming harvests. These forecasts served as a significant source, making people rely on the unpredictable natural environment throughout the long, dark winter.
To honor the occasion, priests constructed enormous holy bonfires, around which people gathered to burn harvests and animals as sacrifices to the gods of the Celts. The Celts aim to tell each other’s fortunes while dressing up in animal heads and skins costumes. They blew up their hearth fires earlier that evening and re-lit them from the sacred bonfire as a safeguard from dark winters.
All Saints’ Day
Pope Boniface introduced the catholic feast “All Martyr’s day” in the western church on May 13, 603 AD. Later, Pope Gregory changed the celebration date from May 13 to November 1 to include all saints and martyrs. Christian popularity had reached Celtic countries by the ninth century, which increasingly replaced more ancient Celtic ceremonies.
The church established “All Souls’ Day” on November 2, around 1000 AD, as a day to remember the deceased. It is now broadly accepted that the church tried to take the place of the Celtic celebration of the dead with a similar, church-approved holiday.
Samhain-style festivities, including large bonfires, parades, and dressing as saints, angels, and demons, were also part of the All Souls’ Day celebration. The All Saints’ Day festival, also known as All-Hallows or All-Hallowmas, started as All-Hallows Eve and Halloween.
History of Trick-or-Treat
By adopting European traditions, Americans started dressing up and knocking on doors to ask for food or money. This practice eventually developed into the modern-day “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young girls thought that by performing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors on Halloween, they might predict the name or look of their future spouse.
How Halloween is Celebrated Worldwide
Around the world, people celebrate Halloween with fun-sized candy bars, costumes, trick-or-treating, and jack-o’-lanterns. Including Halloween in Spain, take a look at how it is celebrated worldwide.
America
Halloween is a cherished holiday in the United States observed on October 31 and has gained enormous popularity. Halloween activities that Americans enjoy most include:
- Wearing the customized costumes
- Carving of pumpkins to make jack-o-lanterns
- For children, trick-or-treating involves going door to door, knocking and calling out “trick or treat,” and receiving candy in return
- Spooky events such as spooky theme decorations, telling horror stories and going to horror movies or “haunted house” attractions are also very popular
- Traditional treats, including caramel-covered apples, candy corn, and pumpkin-flavored food
Ireland
It is no surprise that the Irish have a unique way of celebrating the holiday. The national Halloween treat in Ireland is a sweet bread called Barmbrack. For Americans, any candy will do for Halloween.
England
England celebrates Guy Fawkes Day on November 5 when people reflect on the movie “Gunpowder Plot of 1605”. It is recognizable to cinema fans as a scene from V for Vendetta. Many people tried to conflict the celebration of these two eves.
Scotland
According to the Scotts, the Halloween ritual will reveal whether you and your lover are genuinely meant to be. For this purpose, they throw nuts into a fire. You won’t be hearing wedding bells soon if they break and crack loudly. If they behave themselves, everything will go well in your partnership. Stores stock up with customized sweets early on 31 October.
China
In China, Halloween is not celebrated. They celebrate the “Hungry Ghost Festival”, which involves honoring good spirits and avoiding evil ones.
Malaysia
The Chinese population in Malaysia also celebrates the “Hungry Ghost Festival”. Various amusing performances, such as opera and puppet plays, are included in the celebration.
Japan
Halloween is not a holiday in Japan, but wearing themed costumes makes this event fun and exciting in Tokyo and other big cities. Halloween costumes are accessible for those who celebrate because cosplay is already a massive part of Japanese youth culture. The orange and black hues of this special day.
Germany
Bavaria just began to embrace Halloween about 20 years ago. People can celebrate the festival by going to the Pumpkin Festival.
Romania
On All Hallows Eve, the Bran Castle connects to the Dracula legend and is available for a dance party.
Mexico
Mexico’s Day of the Dead is celebrated on November 2. Mexicans think that on this day, ghosts may come into the world. It is technically not Halloween but a day when people remember their departed friends and family.
New Orleans, Louisiana
From street parties to voodoo-themed art displays, there is much for the eye to behold in New Orleans. This town loves parties and voodoo so that people can find things here they couldn’t anywhere else.
Halloween in Spain
In Spain, it is not a commercial festival but a celebration of life’s continuance. Some theme parties are practiced all around the country. On the official holiday of “Dia de Todos Los Santos”, many families pay social visits to the graves of their dead loved ones. They bring flowers, food, drink, and holy water.
Spooky Halloween Symbolism
Spooky costumes have traditionally been fashioned after characters like devils, vampires, ghosts, and skeletons. As time went on, more popular fictional characters, famous people, and archetypal figures like ninjas and princesses were added to the collection.
Skeletons and Ghosts
Samhain is where skeletons and ghosts first appeared, which inspired the event of Halloween. The Celts thought that on this night, the line separating the worlds of the living and the dead was blurred, allowing the dead to reappear as ghosts and interact with the living.
This connection to the “day of the dead” is still strong today. Because of this, graveyards and haunted homes are particularly common during the October season. Ghosts and skeletons are unsettlingly symbolic reminders of the afterlife, mortality, and the human spirit.
The Jack-o’-Lantern and Pumpkins
Jack-o’-Lantern is famous for Halloween decorations. Halloween has a long history with the jack-o’-lantern, even though the devilish faces didn’t always carve out of pumpkins. Their genesis is a folktale from Ireland about Stingy Jack, who conned the devil to get rich.
Jack was cursed to wander the earth for all eternity. The reason behind this was neither God nor the devil would let him enter either heaven or hell after he died. To scare away Jack’s wandering soul, people in Ireland began to carve demonic faces into turnips. Irish immigrants to the US started making jack-o-lanterns out of pumpkins since they were local to the area.
Vampires
Dracula is a classic horror book written by Bram Stoker in 1897 because vampires are frequently characterized as avenging (human corpses that have returned from the dead to torture the living). Vampires are synonymous with horror and the undead.
Bats
For a long time, people have connected bats with mysticism, evil, death, and the paranormal. Some novels and dramas made the relationship between vampires and bats more well-known. Samhain is one idea about the connection between bats and Halloween. The Celts would celebrate the end of the harvest by lighting bonfires to ward off evil spirits. This behavior would draw bats as well as insects.
Witches
The witch is arguably the most iconic Halloween emblem of all. We can all identify her because she frequently rides her broomstick past a full moon and has a wart on her hooked nose. Witches have appeared in several European folk stories and Shakespearean plays as vile, hideous hags.
Black Cats
On Halloween, a black cat is likely to be present close by if you spot a witch. Black cats have become the subject of superstition because the color black is frequently linked to death. Glowing, orb-like eyes and pitch-black fur add a spooky flair to Halloween imagery.
Spiders and Cobwebs
The spider is a potent and age-old legendary motif. As spiders can create webs, they are frequently mentioned in folklore as being connected to magic and the paranormal. They can also be associated with peril, dread, entrapment, and deception (think of the phrase “spin a web of deceit”). Cobwebs are a perfect match for Halloween, giving a spooky impression that something has been abandoned or dead for a long time.
Halloween Food
Have you heard? On Halloween, purchases account for one-fourth of all sweets sold annually in the US. Below is the list of food that adds aesthetic to the festival
| 1. | Barmbrack |
| 2. | Bonfire Toffee |
| 3. | Candy Apples |
| 4. | Candy Pumpkins Chocolate |
| 5. | Caramel Apples |
| 6. | Caramel Corn |
| 7. | Colcannon |
| 8. | Customized Cake |
| 9. | Monkey Nuts |
| 10. | Novelty Candy Halloween shaped like skulls, pumpkins, bats, worms, etc |
| 11. | Roasted Pumpkin Seeds |
| 12. | Roasted Sweet Corn |
| 13. | Pumpkin Pie |
| 14. | Soul Cakes |
| 15. | Bobbing for Apples |
| 16. | Sweets/Candy |
Countries That Do Not Celebrate Halloween
Russia
Russia indeed does not celebrate this event. The holiday is unwelcome in Russia, and Russians are incredibly vocal about it. Politicians and religious organizations claim it violates their cultural and Christian norms.
Judaism
In the Second Jewish Book, it is not permissible for Jews to participate in pagan traditions. Reformer Rabbi Jeffrey Goldwasser said, “There is no religious reason why contemporary Jews should not celebrate Halloween.”
Islam
Sheikh Idris Palmer, author of “A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam,” says Muslims should not celebrate Halloween. National Fatwa Council of Malaysia declares it haram due to its pagan roots.
Hinduism
The Hindu festival of Pitru Paksha is celebrated during the Hindu month of Bhadrapada. Hindus hold a ritual to keep the souls of their ancestors at rest. Some Hindus prefer to celebrate Halloween on the same day as Diwali rather than overlap it with the Hindu festival. Other Hindus, such as Soumya Dasgupta, have opposed the celebration because Western holidays like Halloween have “begun to affect our indigenous festivals adversely.”
Conclusion
The history of the Halloween event and how it is celebrated in different countries is given in this article. Do let me know how much you enjoyed it in the comments section. If you want to learn more about the spirits of Halloween, visit the following link:
Halloween Day 31-October Treat Your Trick
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
1. Is Halloween a religious festival?
Like Valentine’s Day or Thanksgiving, Halloween is a secular festival, which means it has no special religious significance.
2. What does Halloween mean in the Bible?
Celebrating Halloween-like events is forbidden in Bible. It states, “Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once, you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord”.
3. What do pumpkins symbolize?
Pumpkins are a key symbol of harvest, abundance, prosperity, and happiness.
4. How did jack-o’-lanterns become associated with Halloween?
Halloween is founded on the Celtic holiday Samhain, which was celebrated in ancient Britain and Ireland on October 31. The Roman Catholic Church changed the date of All Saints’ Day to November 1 in the 8th century. Stingy Jack’s legend was swiftly integrated into Halloween, and we’ve been carving pumpkins (or turnips) ever since.
5. Why do people put pumpkins on their porches for Halloween?
People display carved jack-o-lanterns in windows and on porches to frighten off evil spirits.
