Halloween
Halloween is a festival celebrated in many countries around the globe. Halloween is second largest commercially celebrated holiday in United States of America. People decorate their houses with pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns (A lantern made by carving pumpkin), lights and other horror stuff. They wear costumes like angels, princess, animals, super heroes, witches, favorite movie characters etc., for parades. On Halloween evening kids go trick-or treat wearing their costumes.
Halloween is celebrated every year on October 31st.
Significance of Halloween
Halloween started as the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows day (that is why it is called Halloween, evening before All Hollow’s day). In Christian tradition All Hallow day is dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints and loved ones. Halloween marks the beginning of this tradition. It is also widely believed that Halloween tradition originated from Celtic festival Samhain meaning end of summer. The Celts (Indo-European people in Iron Age and Medieval Europe) celebrated their new year on November 1st. For them Halloween day marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, the end of light and the beginning of darkness, the end of life and the beginning of death. The Celtic priests used to make large bonfires on hilltops around which people gathered and offered sacrifices of crops to the Celtic gods, as a thanksgiving offering. It is also believed that on Halloween day, the line between the living and the dead became thin and the spirits of the Otherworld were allowed to roam on the earth. Even Hindus observe Mahalya Paksha and Mahalaya Amavasai during this time (October/ November) of year for the same reason. The Celts, hoping for a visit from their departed loved ones, would set a place at the table for them and prepare a feast for them. They also set treats outside their house for the wandering spirits. To ward off evil spirits from their households, the Celts were known to place carved pumpkins in front of their doors. If they went out at night they wore costumes so that if they encountered an evil spirit they would be mistaken for an evil spirit themselves and thus be protected from them. This afterwards became Halloween tradition.
It is always fun to celebrate Halloween with costumes, candies and other activities, but it is advisable not to choose costumes or decorations with themes of negative characters, dreadful ghosts, vampires etc. Such kind of costumes attract negative energies. Instead of driving the evil spirits away we end up inviting them inside.
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