Ananyaa Bhowmik | Wealth of Geeks
As mid-October rolls in, the autumnal mood has begun to set in. And what is autumn, if not the season of pumpkin spice and Halloween? This year, too, people are all set to celebrate the festival in all its glory, with consumer spending expected to reach a whopping $12.1 billion.According to the National Retail Federation, 73% of citizens plan to celebrate Halloween this year. That’s higher than even pre-pandemic numbers. Basically, people are going to spend more and participate more this Halloween. What is it about the festival that makes it so special?Halloween: A HistoryAll Hallow’s Eve. Samhain. Día de los Muertos. No matter what name you call it, the tail end of October is full of magic and mystery. It is a time when the veil between the realms of the living and the dead is said to thin.Monsters and the dead walk amongst the living on these nights, marking the passing of autumn and the beginning of winter. As a chill sets in the air, people draw closer, holding their shawls tight, and whisper spooky and mysterious tales of ghosts and tricksters.Halloween, as we know it, was originally a Celtic tradition. The Celts referred to this day as Samhain. They believed that, on this day, mysterious things are at work. Magic and mischief played a big part in their stories and celebrations. Since, on Samhain night, monsters and the dead walk amongst the living, they came up with the tradition of dressing up monsters themselves. This was meant to ensure that monsters don’t harm or prank them.Originally, Samhain was a fire festival. It was also the time of bringing home the harvest. Once harvesting was over, everyone gathered around big communal fires and worshiped the sun with the help of druid priests. The celebrations lasted for three days and three nights. Huge feasts and overwhelming amounts of alcohol marked the days. People made offerings, but not to their ancestors. They left it to appease fairies who cross over to the earthy realm.Other traditions developed later. Communal fires turned to more personal bonfires to protect families from harm. People started carving demonic faces on turnips and called them Jack-o-lanterns. The Irish later started using pumpkins instead of turnips.Modern Halloween wasn’t a thing before the 19th century when Irish immigrants brought their traditions rooted in ancient Celtic beliefs to the United States. Even the idea of trick-or-treating comes from the Irish tradition of dressing up and going from house to house to sing songs meant for the dead. They got cake in return for the entertainment they provided.Around The World for HalloweenWhile everyone doesn’t exactly celebrate Halloween, cultures and religions across the world have different ways of celebrating their version of the Day of the Dead. Here are some ways other cultures pay homage to their ancestors and follow traditions similar to Halloween:MexicoDía de los Muertos, or the Mexican Day of the Dead, is similar to Halloween in many ways. But it has its nuances. This is a day of joy, the day when your ancestors and all the loved ones you’ve lost come to visit. You tell them about the year and offer them food, desserts, and entertainment.It is an oddly wholesome family reunion where the living and the dead can reconnect. The day helps you deal with death and grief. It reminds you that your loved ones are never quite gone. Mexicans, thus, take this chance to celebrate family and love even beyond death.ChinaChina pays homage to its ancestors in April when the warm weather is setting in, and it is time to plant crops. They visit and clean their ancestor’s graves on this day before making food offerings. They decorate the graves with flowers and incense. Tomb-sweeping is, thus, the most crucial part of this day.The Chinese also believe that this is a time when spirits roam free. So, they place willow branches on their doors to ward off evil. This is a day to reconnect with family, alive and deceased. People will prepare the food and offerings for days ahead so they can spend the time celebrating and reconnecting with their loved ones.IndiaIndia has an entire festival, spanning a few days, dedicated to celebrating the Hindu Goddess of Death — Kali. This festival happens at the same time as Diwali — the festival of light — when people across the country light tiny earthen lamps or candles to ward off evil.Various other traditions are associated with this festival, and diverse communities celebrate it in their own way. For example, Bengalis light 14 lamps on one of these nights. Each lamp is dedicated to an ancestor and is supposed to light their way home as the veil between the earthly and unearthly realms thins.JapanA lot of people in Japan celebrate Halloween. Popular media has made sure of that. However, the Japanese do not associate this day with spirits and ancestors. Their festival of the dead falls in August. During this festival, they make and hang decorative lanterns to guide the way for the ancestors and make food offerings at altars. The festival is also marked by feasts and dancing and ends with people floating their lanterns down rivers and lakes.EnglandHalloween is celebrated in England, too, of course. But November 5th sees the bigger celebrations as people across the country celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. Guy Fawkes plotted to assassinate King James I by blowing everything up with barrels of gunpowder. The attempt failed, but not before creating a legend. This day sees a lot of bonfires and feasts. Children don’t go trick-or-treating but ask for a “penny for the Guy” instead.
