Halloween is just around the corner, and people across the world celebrate it on 31st of October every year. Halloween is observed with much fervour and enthusiasm where everyone dresses up in scary, uncanny costumes, they carve pumpkins of all shapes and sizes and use it to decorate their house indoor and outdoor, they go trick-or-treating and spine chilling decorations are done to make house look ghostly.
In the modern times, Halloween is observed as a fun-filled festival for people of all age groups, but the history of this day is very old and traditional. As per history, it was observed as per Celic traditions and customs.
The Origin of Halloween
The history and start of Halloween are from Celtic festival of Samhain which was observed around 200 decades ago mainly in Ireland and some parts of France. The people who lived in these areas observed 1st of November as their New Year. It was at this time of the year that winter used to start, and thus the weather started getting cold and chilly.
The Celts marked November 1st as the beginning of a new year — a time when summer ended, and the cold, dark winter began. They believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the living and the dead blurred, allowing spirits to roam the earth.
Light and radiance keep the negativity and the bad spirits and the dead away. In order to keep the dead spirits away, Celts at that time would light bonfires. They would also disguise themselves as animals to deceive the spirits. With time, eventually 1st November started being known as All Saints’ Day and the previous evening became famous as All Hallows’ Eve. Eventually people started calling it Halloween.
Symbolism of Halloween Traditions
The Halloween customs and rituals being observed today may seem fun filled modern ones, but they have traditional meanings:
- Jack-o’-lanterns: As per an old myth, there was an Irish man commonly known in his society as Stingy Jack as he was famous for dodging the evil spirits, by carving and lighting turnips and potatoes. It was from here that the tradition of carving Pumpkins originated in USA as pumpkins grew in abundance there. The lighted glowing lanterns are believed to keep away the dead evil spirits.
- Costumes: 2000 years ago the people used to disguise themselves as animals in animal skin to deceive the spirits. In the modern times this dressing up is taken in a very fun casual way and is a time to celebrate with family and friends.
- Trick-or-Treat: In earlier days in England, the poor and the needy visited the rich and prayer for the peace of the ancestors, in turn they were rewarded with food. Nowadays children in their costumes go trick or treating and are given candies.
- Haunted and spooky Houses: As the Celts saw 31st October as the day when the dead visited the earth, thus paranormal and supernatural have long been associated with it. Nowadays people spookily decorate their houses and put in haunted decorations to recreate the spookiness and chills.
How is Halloween celebrated in the Modern Era
In modern times, Halloween is considered a very fun filled festival and is famous in countries like United States, Canada, the UK, and Ireland. The communities and families come together and celebrate spookiness and also have a lot of fun dressing up.
It is a time when mainly children dress up in costume of superheroes, ghosts, witches and spooky characters They go trick-or-treating where they go door to door, while the grown ups stay at home to distribute candies or attend costume parties, scary movie nights, pumpkin carving and decorating competitions.
Earlier, Halloween was limited only to Western Countries but nowadays South Eastern countries like India also celebrate Halloween with the same enthusiasm. Halloween-themed events where scary decorations , orange food items and costume contests are held. Even schools and educational institutions conduct pumpkin art, face painting, poster making and fancy dress events.
Halloween Decorations & Food
Spine chilling, spooky atmosphere which creates scare is created on the day of Halloween. Fake cobwebs, skeletons, ghosts, bats, and gravestones are used to create such an environment. Orange and black is mostly the theme of everything on this day where orange symbolizes harvest and black symbolizes the paranormal.
Food items like pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake, pumpkin punch and pumpkin lattes are made and served on this day. Candy is a favorite amongst children which dominates trick or treating. Other Halloween items consist mainly of spooky looking bread items and pies.
The Deeper Meaning of Halloween
Despite of being a fun filled day and night, Halloween has a deep rooted spiritual past and meaning. The eternal cycle of life and death is remembered and honored in different ways on this day, be it costime dressing, spooky food items, scary decorations or the make up like the dead.
Just like the Celts who saw this day to honor the dead and welcome the new season, similarly today also people honor the superheroes who dies for us by dressing up like them, celebrating it as a community and by honoring the harvest and using the pumpkin which is produced in abundance in this season.
Halloween symbolizes that even though darkness prevails on this day, still the radiance of the good and the nature comes up and glorifies our lives. The celebrations also let the people go overboard with their imagination of the supernatural and paranoramal.
Conclusion
Halloween 2025 is a global celebration and is a day to honour the past and celebrate the present. The day is a reminder that good and bad, darkness and light both can co-exist in unison and create harmony,
The modern-day celebrations let the people let go of their inhibitions and enjoy their imagination and creativity at the best, The day brings the communities and families together to celebrate. So, this October 31st, light your jack-o’-lantern, dress up in your favorite costume, and let the spirit of Halloween bring out your inner child — playful, curious, and fearless in the face of the unknown.
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