Halloween is a western traditional festival and is usually on October 31th every year.It evolved from an ancient Celtic festival called ‘Samhain’ which was Christianised by the early Church.It is their new year and meanwhile the time to sacrifice dead.This festival is believed to have been a celebration of the end of the harvest,and people worship their progenitors with foods to prey for the coming cold winter and avoiding the interference of devils.And Halloween is absorbed,transformed and redefined from other religions through Catholicism.
At Halloween,Many people decorate their houses carefully in order to welcome the busy traditional holiday.They put pumpkin lanterns in front of their door and cobweb models,bones and other decorations are also used to create haunted houses or graveyards.There are always a lot of activities to celebrate Halloween.Typical Halloween activities include dressing up,carving pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns,trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.Here are some details for understanding.
1.costumes
Halloween costumes are featuring magic,strange,and horrible. The main clothing is with skeleton motifs in front and skull gloves and masks,which create a horrible feeling.
But now,Halloween costumes is not only dull ghosts or monsters any more.People enjoy acting more types on that day.Adults’favourite costumes are witches,vampires,pirates,zombies,superman,batman,magical clown and many other interesting characters in films or novels.And many women also like to dress up as a nun or some sexy ones like soldiers,polices or famous stars like Lady Gaga.
Not only adults are keen on dressing up,so do children.Lots of children like horrible attires such as vampires or zombies as well.King and princess,angels,pumpkin suit is also common and popular among kids.
2.pumpkin lanterns
Pumpkin lantern,also called Jack-o'-lantern,is a indispensable thing on Halloween night,which is a widely known symbol at Halloween.It has a very cute look and people usually make it by themselves.They hollow out the pumpkins and engrave smiling eyes and big mouths on the pumpkins.Then they place a lighting candle inside so that people can see the naive smiling or awful face in a faraway place if your pumpkin is big enough.According to the tale, pumpkin lanterns can dispel ghosts.Kids would also dress up as a spirit and take the Jack-o-lanterns to their neighborhoods and shout”trick or treat”to ask for candies.
3.Trick or treat
Referring to ‘trick or treat’,it is a customary celebration for children on Halloween.Halloween is a good time for children to play.For them,it is a mysterious holiday.They can’t wait to wear masks and dress up as various horrible look,and then ring their neighbour’s doorbell one by one and shout “trick or treat!” for collecting free candies.Usually the hosts would then give them some sweet candies,chocolate or some small presents.Children would totally get bags of sweets in that night.And if the homeowners give no treat,kids will threat to perform mischief on the inhabitants of the house.
4.Halloween gifts
Mutual Halloween gift exchange is cool and can also used top play tricks on others among young people.They can choose stick-on tattoos,cute bags with candies inside,exaggerated masks,lovely clown or witch toys,and any other quirky and exciting presents.
5.Parties and other activities
Telling ghost stories and watching horror movies are the main activities in Halloween parties.And one traditional game people often play at Halloween is dunking or apple bobbing,which participants have to lift the apple that floating on the water with their teeth.People would also prepare Halloween dinner at that night.Since Halloween comes in the wake of the yearly apple harvest,candy apples is given to kids.Apple cider,candy corn,pumpkins and barmbrack are also the common food.Halloween parade is an indispensable part too.People put out the fire and get out to the street with horrible masks and costume,and create a noisy atmosphere so that the ghosts will scare away.
Halloween is a result of a religious festival which is celebrated in memory of Christian Saints,while some heretics joined the church and brought some pagan customs.Anyway,the modern celebration of Halloween is a complicated mix of evolved traditions and influences.
