Halloween Custom is a tradition originated from Ireland and it is celebrated each year on the night of October 31st. Halloween, otherwise called Samhain, is considered one of the oldest holidays in the world. It is an old festival celebrated in Gaelic culture at the end of the harvest season by a group of tribal people called Celts.
Old beliefs about Halloween Custom:
The most popular story about Halloween Celebration was that the ancient Gaels had a strong belief that on October 31st, the boundary between the dead and the living diminishes. The dead enter in the world of living and harm them by either damaging crops or killing animals and/or by causing sickness and death of humans.
This Halloween Custom or the Samhain festival is usually celebrated with the bones of slaughtered animals, lighting of bonfires, telling stories of ghosts, using masks and costumes in order to imitate the evil spirit. As a rule, it has got all the ingredients to connect to the supernatural world.
On the day of Halloween, the Celts has a belief that the Lord of Death will call all the souls of the people who had died in the preceding years to travel to the afterlife world. So, all the living being felt if they disguise themselves with masks and scary evil costumes , the visiting spirits of the dead will think that they are ones among them and will therefore cause no harm.
Changes in the Halloween Custom brought by Global Recognition:
Though the Halloween day originated in Ireland for many years, it started being celebrated in United States only around the late 19th Century. Halloween custom is now celebrated in many countries all over the world like United Kingdom, United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden etc. And each country adapted its own Halloween customs.
New additions to the Halloween Custom are as follows :
- Watching Ghost movies or scary movies.
- Telling ghost stories.
- Bonfires, an outdoor fire which is a part of the Halloween custom that came from the ancient Celtic custom. The fire is made out of the waste materials like the bones of the slaughtered domesticated animals. But, in today’s times, bonfire are made from wood and paper.
- Ghost tours by dressing up in scary Halloween costumes
- Tours to haunted houses.
- Halloween pumpkin Carving with family and friends is also a Halloween custom and part of this celebration.
- Playing Halloween games and pranks which can be tried by friends and family members, who dress up like a devil with scary costumes and scares others.
- Regaling Halloween jokes.
- Halloween myths which is a combination of ancient and new superstitions.
- Halloween tricks or treats which is an activity of children where they go from one house to another asking for treats like snacks, chocolates, sweets.
Halloween customs were not yet celebrated in United States in the late 18th century and early 19th century and it was not included under the American holidays. But, in the late 19th century, after the migration of the Irish people to United States, they brought their Halloween custom events with them and now Halloween day is considered as one of the most popularly celebrated holiday in United states.