It’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark… and so begins the iconic soundtrack Thriller by Michael Jackson, which has become one of the most popular songs on the Halloween playlist across the world, and you will find people dressed as zombies dance-walking on the road in the pitch dark night, to these tunes. Yes! The day of evil, carved-out pumpkins, costume parties and of course, trick or treat is here!

The Real Reason to Celebrate

Halloween literally translates to ‘holy evening’ which comes from ‘All Hallows’ Eve’, a Scottish term meaning ‘the evening before All Hallows’ Day’. While the Christian religious observances of All Hallows’ Eve include attending church, eating vegetarian food and lighting candles on the graves of the dead, the rest of the world has taken on the more commercial and secular side of festivities associated with Halloween. The origin of Halloween was a pagan festival called ‘Samhain’ that marked the end of summer. It was believed that this night the spirits of dead people would visit the mortal world, and hence people would light bonfires to keep evil spirits away.

Though Halloween traditions vary across countries and communities, some common and popular festivities include decorating with Jack-o’-lanterns, playing tricks or treating, bonfires, costume parties, and apple bobbing among many others.

Jack-o’-Lanterns- how it started

The most popular tradition with Halloween is that of carving out big fat pumpkins in to Jack-o’-lanterns. Amongst many versions of this story, one goes back to 18th century when Jack, an Irish man, would always trick Satan in to not taking him to hell. One night he tricked Satan to climb a tree, and Jack then cut off all the branches to prevent Satan from coming down. Satan pleaded Jack to help him get down with a promise to never take his soul to hell. After death, upon being denied an entry to heaven, and being refused by Satan for an entry to hell, Jack’s soul is left to wander. Satan hands him a burning ember to see in the dark. Jack carves out a turnip and places that burning ember in that turnip to guide him. This explains the tradition to carve vegetables to make lanterns. Going forth, the turnips were switched with pumpkins, since these can be easily carved and are available in abundance. And, so goes the interesting folklore behind our popular Jack-o’-lantern.

Would you like a Trick or we can do with a Treat

Another popular, and an extremely favorite hit among kids is to play trick or treat around the neighborhood. Children dress up in costumes visit the houses asking for ‘treats’ and if not given one, threatening to perform a ‘trick’ on the homeowner. This has its origins from the Irish custom of ‘souling’ where poor people and children would go around houses asking for food, and in return pray for the departed relatives and friends of the homeowners. This transformed in to ‘trick or treating’ and today, Halloween candies are a big business across many countries including America.

Dress up for Halloween

Come Halloween, and there is this craze of who’s dressing up as what for the Halloween costume party. From Hollywood celebrities to a family living in the suburbs, costume parties are now a big rage when it comes to Halloween celebrations. People of different age groups dress up as witches, devils, movie characters, and everything else that’s spooky. Dressing up in elaborate costumes began with the idea that when the evil spirits wander the earth, the costumes will act as disguises for the mortals to escape being caught by the evil spirits. Out of the many parties, Greenwich Village in New York holds the world’s largest Halloween parade with more than 60,000 costumed participants performing for one-million world-wide TV audiences.

Let’s Play Apple Bobbing

One of the many interesting games being played on the Halloween night is that of apple bobbing. This requires the players to catch floating apples using their mouth. As the folklore goes, on the Halloween night, the Devil would wander the roads ripping people vertically in to two. It was believed that water is like poison to devil hence, people would submerge their heads all night in tubs full of water. To make sure they won’t go hungry through the night, they would also place apples in those tubs thus, saving their lives from the devil.

What’s in my Bread?

Brambrack is considered the food for Halloween feast among Irish. This custom is followed across the world, and everyone likes to bake this fortune-telling bread on Halloween. It involves adding treats to the bramback before putting it up on the hearth for baking. Each member of the family is served a slice of this bread and the treats they discover in their slice would carry a meaning. Finding a ring in your bread would mean entering a marital alliance pretty soon, a coin would mean your way to good fortune is paved, a stick denotes some disturbances in the married life, and a rag implies bad luck and loss of fortune. Wow, that sounds like fun!

 

Over centuries and cultures, the traditions and reasons for celebrating Halloween may have evolved, with the festival now representing fun, parties and holidays. So, what are you dressing up as, for tonight’s Halloween party? And before you go out partying, remember to leave a pot full of candies by the door for the treat or you might have to return to some mischievous tricks!

Naina Madan

From CA to advertising to writing, life has been a true roller-coaster ride. Not that I mind it. When not figuring out how to earn money to finance the travel, coffee and books, I am day-dreaming the travel, the coffee smell and virtually sniffing through new released books.

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