Calendario Cultural – Octubre: Halloween

Get your pumpkins and fancy dress outfits, because Halloween is around the corner

Here’s all you need to know on why the day has its name and some suggestions about what costumes you can do this year. As we already know, black and orange are the colours associated with this day, orange represents harvest and autumn and black represents death and darkness.

Origins

• It is widely thought that Halloween traditions came from Celtic harvest festivals of Samhain.
• ‘Samhain’ is the old Irish word which means the end of the harvest season and the beginning of the cold, dark, winter season.
• ‘Samhain’ was seen as a time when the ‘door’ to the other-world opened enough for the souls of the dead and other beings to come into our world. To stop these spirits, people would set up places at their dinner tables for them and light bonfires to scare off the evil ones.

How can you celebrate Halloween?

There are a number of ways to celebrate the festival, whether you want to go out or enjoy it from the comfort of your home. These include:

• Playing apple bobbing
• Carving pumpkins
• Playing pranks
• Dressing up in fancy dress at a costume party
• Going trick or treating
• Watching horror films
• Telling scary stories
• Visiting “haunted” attractions

Did you know?

The word Halloween comes from Halloween, meaning “hallowed evening” or holy evening.

• Halloween falls every year on October 31st. It is held the day before All Saints’ Day.
• Halloween activities typically involve trick or treating and dressing up in fancy dress.
• The phrase Trick or Treat originates from the Ancient Celts who believed that spirits and ghosts roamed the countryside on Halloween night. The people wore costumes and masks to avoid being recognised as humans.
• When children dress up they go around from house to house. This is called ‘Trick or Treating’. They ask for a small treat and if they don’t get it they will play a trick on the people at the door. Treats used to be fruit, nuts and apples. Now they are sweets and crisps.
• In the USA, people celebrate Halloween in a big way. When Irish emigrants went to America in the 19th century they brought Halloween and the customs with them. Americans adapted the customs (i.e. instead of carving turnips they used pumpkins) and made them their own. Nowadays the decorations and costumes are beautiful and colourful.