Who is he? Halloween!

Halloween, celebrated on November 1 every year, is a traditional Western holiday; and the night before Halloween, October 31, is the most festive time of the year. In Chinese, Halloween is often falsely translated as All Saints’ Day.

To celebrate Halloween, children dressed up as cute ghosts and goblins knock on doors door to door, asking for candy or else they will go trick-or-treating. Legend has it that on this night, ghosts and goblins dressed up as children mix with the crowd to celebrate Halloween, and that the ghosts and goblins are dressed up as ghosts and goblins in order to make them get along better.

Origin of the name Halloween

“Hallow” comes from the Middle English halwen, which is close to the word holy, and Halloween is still known as “All Hallow Mas” in some areas of Scotland and Canada.

There are many versions of the origin of Halloween, but the most widely circulated is:
Legend has it that the Celts, who lived in Ireland and Scotland, believed that October 31st was the official end of summer, the beginning of the New Year and the start of the harsh winter. At that time, it was believed that the dead souls of the deceased would return to their homeland on this day to find life in the living, through which to regenerate, and this is the only hope of regeneration after death.

The living are afraid that the spirits of the dead will come to take over their lives, so people extinguish the fire and candles on this day so that the spirits of the dead cannot find the living. They would also dress up as demons to scare the spirits of the dead away. Afterward, they would rekindle the fires and candles again to start a new year.

Halloween Costumes

Halloween costumes originated as pranks where adults would take children out with them (usually the adults would pull over in their cars and the children would say, “Trick or treat.

Adults ask their children in advance to only go to homes with festive decorations and lights at the entrance, otherwise they are not allowed to disturb them.

Trick-or-treating

In addition, the child must always stand at the front door and wait during the trick-or-treating process, but is not allowed to enter the house, and the candies must be handed over to an adult for inspection before they can be eaten. People who receive children are also asked not to give home-made food or unpackaged food.

Halloween costumes, with all the faces of all the people, are not just monotonous big ghosts and little ghosts. To make the simplest ghost costume, a white sheet is put on the head and two holes are made for the eyes;
If you want to play a magician, put on a black coat and black pants, put on a black hat, and hide a fluffy bunny between the hat and the top of the head;

Children wearing white pants, and then tied behind the back of a flashlight on the head is dressed as a little angel; there are also parents to dress up their children into their favorite cartoon images.

Why pumpkin lights?

Pumpkin lamps originated in ancient Ireland. Legend has it that a man named Jack was a drunkard and a prankster. On Halloween, he set up a trap to trap the devil in a tree, and he did not allow the devil to come down until the devil promised to never let him live in hell.

After Jack’s death, because he did not believe in God, he could not enter heaven, and the Devil would not let him enter hell. In order to assist Jack in finding his way back to earth, the Devil gave him a piece of burning charcoal, which Jack placed inside a lantern that he carved out of a carrot. This first “Jack’s lantern” helped to find his way back to Ireland, but he never found it, so he carried it with him forever.

The legend about jack-o’-lanterns

In the old Irish legend, this small candle was placed in a hollowed out turnip, called “Jack Lanterns“, and the old turnip lamp evolved to today, is a pumpkin made Jack-O-Lantern. It is said that soon after the Irish arrived in the United States, they discovered that pumpkins were superior to turnips in terms of origin and carving, and so pumpkins became a Halloween favorite.

Ps: Personally, I feel that after all, pumpkins are bigger and easier to carve into lights. And carrots. The carving skills of the real survey people~!

China’s July Mid-Year Festival VS Western Halloween

The Chinese July Zhongyuan Festival is on the 15th day of the 7th month of the lunar calendar every year, and there are a lot of taboos during this time of the Ghost Festival, such as not even going out at night, just to avoid encountering bad luck. The traditional Chinese view is that it is best to stay away from ghosts and monsters, so the Chinese New Year Festival is not packaged as a holiday like Halloween.