Halloween around the world
Halloween is a long running festival that takes place on October 31st and has been dating back centuries. Across the globe many different forms of this festival are held around this date with similar beliefs and ideas, however the names of this holiday vary, as do their traditions. Today, particularly in the UK and USA, Halloween is seen to be a commercial holiday with its soul purpose being to entertain. Most people host costume parties or Halloween movie fests, the most traditional thing that people today participate in is trick or treating which involves parents or siblings taking children out into their neighbourhood dressed up in scary or not so scary Halloween costumes, going from door to door and asking for sweets from their neighbours by saying the phrase “Trick or Treat”. Although this holiday isn’t serious for us, many cultures have far more serious traditions with meanings that go far beyond wanting to scare people and eat sweets.
In Mexico (particularly in the centre and south) a massive 3-day festival is held from October 31st – November 2nd called ‘Day of the dead’ (or De de los Muertos in Spanish). This festival is one, which gathers family and friends together to pay respects to and honour their loved ones, which have passed.
It is believed that on midnight of October 31st the gates of heaven will open and the spirits of deceased children will be allowed to join their families for 24 hours, and on November 2nd, the spirits of the deceased adults will come down to join in the festivities which are laid out for them by their loved ones.
The main way in which this holiday is celebrated is through the preparation of the altars and graves of the loved ones by their families. In many homes across the centre and south of Mexico, families create altars and shrines are built which is called and Ofrenda (meaning offering) and these are decorated with loads of candles, buckets of flowers such as wild marigolds and red cocks combs, and sugar skulls which are purchased from day of the dead markets. Food is also placed on these altars such as; fruit, peanuts, turkey mole, tortillas and day of the dead breads called pan de muerto as well as lots of water. This is done because it is believed that the altar needs lots of food and water for the weary spirits.
On October 31st another thing that is placed on the altar is toys and sweets for the spirit children, and on November 2nd cigarettes, tequila and shots of mescal are put out on the altar for the adult spirits. A similar thing is done for the graves of their loved ones as well; this is on the 2nd of November where the festivities are taken from their homes and into the graveyard. On this day not only do they lay out candles, flowers, food, water and sugar skulls at the tombstones but they also clean the tombstones and properly celebrate with listening to the village band, play cards and reminisce of their loved one. In some parts of the country children dress up in costumes and roam the streets, knocking on doors and asking passers by for a small gift of candles or money. This tradition can be seen as similar to trick or treating in our country.
These traditions and activities in Mexico are not all the same as they vary from village to village in the way, which they celebrate and all are not universal.
In Ireland there are many other old traditions which people still participated in by folk today, some stranger than others. The more normal ones include: Carving pumpkins which is something that many different cultures so and isn’t an odd thing to do, another is having a bonfire lit which in itself isn’t strange at all however, the reason behind it is a little different than just being a place to hang out. The belief is that it’s supposed to encourage dreams of whom your future husband or wife is going to be and is done by dropping a lock of your own hair into the fire. Another one of the more unusual types comes from the belief that Fairies and Goblins try to collect as many souls as possible on Halloween night so sometimes holy water would be anointed on farm animals to keep them safe during the night, and if the animals were showing signs of poor health during Halloween eve then they would be spat on to ward off evil spirits. Ireland has some of the oldest Halloween traditions in the world and some of the most interesting.
In China, Halloween is called Teng Chieh and their beliefs are similar to that of All saints eve and Day of the dead in the fact that they believe that on October 31st spirits travel back down to earth. People leave out food and water in front of photographs of loved ones who have passed, and lanterns are lit to light the way for the spirits. Buddhist temple worshippers fashion what is called ‘Boats of the law” out of paper and are burned in the early hours, this is done in the remembrance of the dead and also to free trapped spirits from what is called ‘Pretas’ and send them to a heaven like place to put them to rest in peace. Preta means ‘hungry ghost’ in English and the presence of them among the living is thought by the Chinese to be dangerous which is why the boats of law are lit on Teng Chieh.
In England and France Halloween is celebrated in the western style that America follows. People dress up in costumes of scary things such a ghosts, goblins, witches and vampires. However, France traditionally just dresses in the traditionally scary costumes listed above unlike here in England where we also dress up in the more cartoonish costumes such as Princesses and superheroes. In France, trick or treating is very rare, unlike England again, and when it does happen it is usually kids going from store to store rather than door to door. In England trick or treating is very common, something that was adopted from the US and most kids these days do it by going from door to door of their neighbourhood and asking for sweets, dressed in costumes. Something with the two countries do exactly the same is the way in which we decorate for Halloween. France and England’s stores, restaurants, malls and homes are decorated with various Halloween decorations and jack-o-lanterns. When it comes to Halloween, both countries don’t really know what they’re celebrating as opposed to the countries above and feel as if it’s really an American holiday they’re celebrating.
When it comes to celebrating October 31st, many cultures with specific traditions have similar ideas about what the holiday is about and their ways of traditions are fairly similar with similar meanings to them. All saints eve, Teng Chieh and Day of the dead all have the belief that this is the evening where spirits return to earth and they must be prepared for it, it’s quite superstitious. Whereas in the more westernised countries like France, England and America their Halloween celebrations have almost no meaning to them and are about the scares and having a good time.
This article was designed for the media website so it is quite long for an article however, it is my first article to be put out there so I'm proud of it.
