Halloween

Halloween is a celebration of pumpkin carving, candy collecting, and costume wearing. The history of Halloween has already been described in this blog post (see Blog Archive). Webster dictionary defines Halloween as: ‘The evening of Oct. 31; the eve of all saints’ day: observed esp. by children, who dress in costumes and play trick or treat.” Pumpkin is the symbol or presentation of Halloween. A pumpkin is usually carved to shape a skeleton, and a candle is lit inside it. People decorate their homes for Halloween and place one or several carved pumpkins in front of the door or behind the window. Children in this day collect variety of candies and sweets. Fright, terror, dread, trepidation, and horror are themes of Halloween. People show their artistic talent by the kind of costume they wear, mostly a costume that creates fears and scares others. Some public places, such as schools, make certain “house of horror” or “hunted houses” for children to visit at night. Businesses usually decorate outside, and place a pumpkin near the reception or register. They may provide visitors with candies as well. Children dress up in their costumes and walk around their neighborhood knocking on doors with a bag or jar in hand for collecting candies and sweets from people who open the door. The tradition is to throw a rotten egg on the door of the place if they do not give out candy or if no one opens the door. I have not heard of anyone doing it however. Adults celebrate Halloween by attending to various kinds of costume parties. Some immigrants, who had not celebrated Halloween in their native countries, usually have an ambiguous feeling whether to celebrate it as others do. They have the same dilemma during Christmas, Thanksgiving, Yom Kippur, Kwanza, and all other religious, ethnic, or national holidays; which they had not celebrated in their native lands. If their children are born and raised in the host country, they have more inclination to celebrate national holidays. In multi cultural countries such as the US, we can extend this question of whether all should celebrate holidays, from immigrants to the whole population and by including all ethnicities. For example, should non-Jewish people celebrate Chinese New Year? Should Buddhist people celebrate Passover? Should Native Americans celebrate Persian New Year? Should Americans of European decent celebrate Kwanza? In short, should anyone celebrate a festivity that had not been a part of that person’s tradition, culture, or family custom, even religious holidays? The answer is yes, simply because one should cherish all happy events and celebrations. But the reason goes further than that. In order for the people of the world to come together and experiment unity, they need to join and experience other cultures through those cultures’ customs and celebrations. Most of the celebrations, especially seasonal ones, have the same roots, and relate to farming, harvesting, and agriculture. When people learn the root of an event that is celebrated, they can be more equipped to share and enjoy that event. Everyone regardless of race, color, and national origin can enjoy and share happy and cheerful celebrations of other cultures and religions as Christmas, a religious holiday, is an international festivity for all believers and non-believers of Christianity. Unfortunately, these events have become very commercialized recently, and they have become a reason to sell candy, postcards, costumes, presents, or other things that are abundantly wasted. We should be careful not to lose the spirit of the holiday to commercialism. Happy Halloween!