Halloween

Halloween the very famous holiday which is celebrated around the globe in different countries, Where people and mostly best children Halloween costumes dress up in frightening costumes and wear masks and roam around collecting candies from the neighborhood.

What is Halloween

Every Year on the night on 31 October, People celebrate Halloween, which is the evening before the Christen Holy Day of “All Hallows Day” which is also known as “All Saints Day” on 1 November and “All Souls Day” on 2 November, thus giving the holiday of 31 as Halloween. The word actually means the evening or eve before All Hallows Day thus making it Halloween.
Halloween is often associated with the Celtic festival of ” Samhain “. The Samhain festival is celebrated for making the end to the harvest season and the beginning of winter or the “darker half” of the year.

History of Halloween

It started as an ancient festival, celebrated by the pre-Christians and Celtics as the Festival of the Dead.
At the time for the Celts November first was the day of the year they switched between Autumn and Winter. Sadly it was also believed to be the day in which like line between the world of the living and the world of the dead is the thinnest.

As I mentioned earlier that, this was the time of the year at which people were making the end of their harvest and moving their animals in barns and pens, begging of the darker half of the year with a change in lifestyle and getting ready for the cold long dark winter. There was a lot of superstition associated with this change of lifestyle, including the belief that spirits and ghost of the dead, wandering around looking for bodies to inhabit.
Since the living did not want that to happen they started dressing up as the dead and wearing costumes and roaming around on streets and making loud scary noises in order to confuse and frighten the spirits, in addition to that people started pulling practical jokes on each other. Then around the 5th century, the Catholic Church developed and moved into the area and instead of adding a new day to celebrate, it took over the Samhain celebration. Nov. 1st became “All Hallows Eve” where all the saints of the Catholic church were honored.

Which Countries Celebrate Halloween and Why..?

Halloween is one of the most well-known holidays in the world. It also gives the most sales in candy and therefore comes at 2nd place after Christmas at 1st.
A few of the Counties that Celebrate are.

Austria
Some Austrians will leave Water, Bread and even lighted lamps while retrieving at Halloween night because to them, things like these will welcome the dead back to earth.

Canada
In Canada Halloween is Celebrated by Carving and homes are decorated with pumpkins and other decorations and parties and Trick-or-Treat.

Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, Halloween celebration is known as “Yue Lan” which means the Festival of the “Hungry Ghosts” and is the time when it’s believed that spirits roam the world for twenty-four hours. People also burn pictures of fruit or money during this time, believing these images would reach the spirit world and bring comfort to the ghosts.

Germany
In Germany, People celebrates by putting away their knives on Halloween night, because they do not want to risk harm befalling the returning spirits.

Belgium
The custom in Belgium on Halloween night is to light candles in memory of dead relatives.

France
Unlike several countries of the world, Halloween is not celebrated by the French in order to honor the dead. It is regarded as an “American” holiday in France and was virtually unknown in the country until around 1996.

Trick-or-Treat

Later on, a Costume gradually developed where people would go door to door asking for small cakes from the families in exchange for a promise of saying a few prayers for the dead relatives of that family. This was originated from a religious belief that the dead are in a state of limbo before going to heaven or hell and that the prayers of the living can influence them and their outcomes. This may have started the Trick-or-Treat.

What does it mean when someone says Trick-or-Treat

When children go house to house asking for treats such as candy and in some countries money, they say Trick-or-Treat. The commonly use line “trick-or-treat” is a thread to the owner of that house and his property. If the Children do not get treats they will pull practical jokes and pranks and will do mischief with the house owner.

Halloween Costume

The tradition of dressing-up on Halloween is as I mentioned previously Celtic, people wearing ridiculous costumes and storming on the street.

People Dress-up ghost or phantom and some even put on famous celebratory outfits and Movie start costumes and outfits and famous movie character costumes Celebratory jackets etc.

Get a fashionable and stylish outfit for this Halloween and go out with style.

So what are you waiting for..!! Be quick to grab a costume and join the fun. Halloween is all about spooky stuff, lots of candy and pranks, above all dressing up as the Character you always wanted to be.