In many parts of the world, October 31 marks the emergence of tiny ghouls, goblins, witches and other frightening figures. Simple pumpkins become scary or funny jack-o'-lanterns, and one hears, "Trick or treat" everywhere. October 31 marks the celebration of Halloween in much of the world. Sometimes spelled Hallowe'en, Halloween is a secular celebration; however, some Christians and pagans believe Halloween has religious overtones. One can also find the roots of Halloween in Samhain's Celtic Festival and in All Saints' Day.
During Halloween, people can be seen celebrating the occasion by indulging themselves in various activities like ghost tours, visiting haunted attractions, trick-or-treating, carving jack-o'-lanterns, wearing costumes, pranking people, reading scary stories, watching horror movies, and bonfires.
The History Of Halloween
The history of Halloween goes back to the time of ancient Celtic festival, popularly known as Samhain. It’s celebrated at the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture and was sometimes regarded as the "Celtic New Year". It’s usually the time when people used to take stocks of the supplies as well as slaughter livestock for their winter stores. According to the belief of the ancient Celts, the boundary between living and the deceased gets dissolved on this day. As a result, it makes the dead dangerous for the living ones as they may cause problems like sickness or damaged crops. In the festival, there was frequent involvement of bonfires, where bones of the slaughtered livestock were thrown. The costumes or masks worn during Halloween were to imitate the evil spirits or to placate them.
The Celebration Of Halloween
Halloween is celebrated with a lot of zeal. One can see various activities during Halloween festival. ‘Trick-or-treating’ is a customary Halloween celebration for the children where they visit house to house in costumes and ask for treats like candy. Halloween costumes are also one of the most prominent features of Halloween. The costumes of Halloween are traditionally of monsters like ghosts, devils, witches and skeletons. There can also be some Halloween costumes, which are based on some specific horror themes like characters from movies, television shows etc.
‘Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF’ is a popular sight during Halloween in North America, where schools distribute small boxes to the trick-or-treaters for collection of small donations from the houses they visit.
There are also a number of games associated with this festival. And people also take the opportunity to celebrate the festival by playing such games. There are also some entertainment venues, called Haunted attractions, which are designed to thrill as well as scare the patrons at the same time.
Finally, how can a festival be a complete one without food? During Halloween, people can also be seen enjoying their time by having candy apples, caramel etc. So, plan your Halloween well in advance. Have a blasting Halloween.
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