10 ways Halloween is celebrated around the world
Some holidays are expensive, some are a chore, and some are just stupid Flat-Out. (Looking at you, groundhog day.) But there is a holiday that everyone can get behind, and if you can not, it's because you're a giant Party-poo without any sense of fun.
Halloween is not only an excuse to eat a ton of candy, but, that's exactly it. It's also an opportunity to become whoever you want to be, be it the Queen of Dragons, a crying angel, or a pet zombie. For American children and adults alike, Halloween is liberating and transformative. But in other parts of the world, the ominous autumn season and its holidays have a more serious and sometimes even spiritual significance, even though just about every culture has found a way to also incorporate some fun. All of these traditions are not strictly Oct. 31, so they might not qualify technically as Halloween-but the mind (Ghost?) Comes in pretty much the same place.
10 Party with 3-D representations of corpses
Dia de Los Muertos originated in Mexico, and it's essentially a ginormous party in honor of the dead, much like Sunday night on AMC except that Los Muertos dia does not lose as many fans.
Like the American version of Halloween, Los Muertos dia has roots in Catholicism and many, many older traditions. While Halloween is based on the ancient Celtic festival, Los Muertos dia incorporates the Catholic tradition with Aztec ritual. According to NPR, the pre-Columbian Aztecs traditionally gave offerings to their ancestors and their deceased loved ones, and then when Catholics introduced themselves, they incorporated some of the practices of all Saints Day into their existing traditions.
On the Los Muertos dia, which will take place on November 1 and 2, celebrants will leave offerings at burial sites or elaborate altars they have created to honor deceased loved ones. It seems like a kind of dark practice, but that's where gravity ends. Celebrants believe that the dead do not really want the living to spend all their time moping and feeling sorry for themselves, so they organize a big party with food, treats, parades and general festivities. . The colorful images of the dead, called calacas and calaveras, are everywhere, and they are always portrayed as enjoying the celebration. It's a huge departure from the American practice of getting dressed in black and feeling sad when you think of the dead. That would be good, right?
9 By baking choking hazards into cake
Halloween as we know it is native to the Emerald Isle, so it makes sense that it's still a pretty big deal there. According to Irish Central, Ireland, Halloween was originally known as Samhain, which does not mean, by the way, something sinister like "Satan's party," regardless of what these Flyers will find you in the candy bags or treat could be trying to say. "Samhain" actually means "end of summer," which is totally boring compared to "Satan's party," so it's no wonder that anti-Halloween usually tries to spice up. Anyway, Samhain is the night when the spirits of the dead back on earth, and since the Celts were pretty sure that not all minds had good intentions, they would light bonfires and dress in costumes to scare the wicked.
Today's Irish fires remain light on Halloween, and they still wear costumes. The Irish have some other traditions all their own, too - they have colcannon for dinner, which is basically mashed potatoes and cabbage, and they serve up barnbrack for dessert, which is something like a cake of Christmas only full of extra horrors. When you eat your piece of barnbrack, you might find a surprise inside - if you're lucky enough to get a coin or ring, it means different types of good luck, but if you find a rag or a dice, it means bad finances and never get married. And to think that there are still people who believe that scary costumes are bad for impressionable young minds!
8 By hiding inside your darkened suburban home
In England, Halloween is a business without enthusiasm. Traditionally, kids bob for apples and jack-o-lanterns of turnips and turnips because the bulk of your vegetables are the best they are at warding off bad spirits. (Not really-it's actually because pumpkins were not really a thing in the UK until recently.) According to the historical UK, the Trick-or-Treating tradition is a modern American import who is cool with English kids, but not so much with adults. A 2006 survey found that nearly half of British homeowners celebrate Halloween by turning off the lights and hiding in the shadows, not because they want to scare anyone, but because they hope Trick-or- caterers will not fail to notice them and leave.
British Millennials are more in the halloween than their predecessors GEN-X-parties are certainly on the raising, and some people worry about Halloween could overshadow Guy Fawkes day on November 5th. If you are unfamiliar with Guy Fawkes Day, this is where the British get together and burn things in celebration of the Powder Patch Detachment, a 17th century conspiracy to blow up Parliament. Nobody should ever come between an arsonist and his hot effigy, but there is probably more to the English aversion to Halloween than just a preference for fire. James Sharpe of York University told Smithsonian that Halloween is an example of "US Cultural Imperialism," which is rich enough from the tiny nation that once ruled 25 percent of the world.
7 By having parties and offending the church
Some people like corn candy and some people think it's the worst thing ever. You're never really neutral about Candy corn. One thing is certain, however, we can thank the Germans for candy corn. Candy Corn is the brainchild of two German immigrants who founded the Goelitz confectionery company in the 1880s. (Ironically, Goelitz then invented Jelly Bellies, which never end up in candy bags or treat because they are so much danged expensive.)
Anyway German do more than just sit around eating Candy corn on Halloween. "Pumpkin festivals" are a big deal, but they are really more like a festival of the American harvest than a nod to our favorite ghostly holiday. Most of what the Germans do on Halloween itself is imported from America and was not really a thing until the 1990s. Some Trick-or-Treat kids, but Halloween is mostly an excuse for young adults to throw parties. This is much to the shagrin of the older Germans, who are still celebrating the day of the Protestant Holiday Reform on October 31, which is at significant odds with all the ghosts and goblins of Halloween.
Some ancient traditions persist-for example, the telegraph says that some Germans will stash their kitchen knives away on Halloween night, just in case a mind pops up and accidentally cuts itself off, as apparently this can happen to someone who does not exist on the body plan.
6 By telling spooky stories and offending the church
When the Soviet Union fell, the Russians had access to many great things that had never been available to them, such as ketchup and religion. According to Russia IC, Halloween may have been introduced to Russians as a side effect of English language programs in schools-children have sometimes been encouraged to read about American Halloween traditions as a fun way to learn and to use the English language, and then at some point that turned into school-wide Halloween parties, and then finally leached Halloween to the rest of the country to annoy the Forevermore Russian parents and rulers.
Unsurprisingly, Halloween is the most popular among young adults, and Russian nightclubs almost always make a big deal out of it with Halloween themed parties, treats, and costume contests. The Russians have also managed to work their own traditions in the holidays-the Russian fairy tales are downright terrifying, it seems pretty natural that they would find a place in the Russian version of Halloween.
And because it would not be Halloween without someone complaining of evil influences, Halloween is banned all the time by Russian religious groups, primarily to be "a negative influence on fragile minds." Let's face it, anyone who disagreed was clearly not present for Halloween 2014 when every freshman was dressed like Disney's Elsa Frozen.
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5 By lighting candles in graveyards
Americaned Halloween has not reached the four corners of the globe (yet). There are many places in the world where they continue to celebrate all day saints or something very similar without also incorporating the costumes, fake gore, and sweets that are so loved in the United States.
According to PragueGo, in the Czech Republic, the holiday is called "Dusicky," which means "little souls," and it is celebrated two days after Halloween, November 2. It is similar in the spirit of los muertos in that the spirits of the dead are considered as guests of honor, although the Czechs do not seem to draw the line to Wild parties and Calaveras. The Czech celebrations take a darker tone: at home, the Czechs could put a chair for every member of the deceased family, in the hope that their spirits will join the family for the evening. They will also visit the graves of deceased loved ones, leave flowers and candles, and sometimes drink a shot of alcohol in honor of the dead. Visiting a candlelit Czech cemetery on Dusicky is a profound experience and really the opposite of what you normally expect from a graveyard on Halloween.
4 By eating French fries covered in horrors
Unlike some cultures, the Japanese do not usually shy away from Americanization. It took a while to really get the hang of Halloween, though.
According to Kotaku, the Japanese have a traditionally sinister season, too, but it happens a few months before Halloween-it's called Obon, and it's pretty similar to every other day of the dead type celebrations. During the Obon, people can travel long distances to tidy the graves of deceased loved ones, and spirits could in turn visit the household sanctuaries, where parents left offerings of fruits, vegetables and flowers. Obon is not only a time for dark reflection, however. The Japanese also like telling scary stories-like pooping your pants, covering children's ears with scary stories. So, really, if you're going to get the kids involved with the Spooky stuff, you kind of need to give them their own version of Obon, and that's probably one of the reasons that Halloween has finally started to gain ground at Japan.
And because Japan still has to put its own distinctly Japanese touch on everything (as it should), you can add mcdonald's Halloween fries with purple yam and chocolate sauce to the list of typically Japanese traditions, which is actually almost as scary as a Japanese ghost story.
3 By singing and asking for cash
Filipinos celebrate Halloween like many other cultures, as a semi-adopted version of the American holiday, superbly combined with their own version of the day of the dead (called undas). In the Philippines, Halloween is a big thing in the workplace, where adults dress up in costumes and engage in fun and extremely unproductive Halloween-themed activities. But at home, Filipinos are a little more serious, especially because grandmother keeps saying something wrong could happen if they do not behave.
Filipinos have their own version of Trick-or-Treat, although it is now considered a dying tradition. According to the Filipino Daily Investigator, "Pangangaluluwa" is the rural practice of going door to door, but instead of just saying "Trick or Treat," you have to put on an entire musical performance. And the owners do not fill your bag with sweets, but with money. It sounds good!
Most participants wear costumes, just like American sweets, and they are usually young adults. Unfortunately, the tradition only lives in a few communities-elsewhere, young children have figured out that they can wear costumes and go door to door, too, and candy is usurping money like the typical Halloween coin. Oh good. It was profitable while it lasted.
2 By throwing giant parties and lighting bonfires
The Italians have a direct line to the ancient Celtic tradition of Samhain-they were the conquerors who brought Christianity to Britannia, so they witnessed the origins of modern Halloween. According to Italy magazine, on November 1 was designated all Saints' Day in the eighth century, then a few hundred years later, the Catholic Church decided that it also needed a day all souls on the 2nd November in honor of the dead, not because he actually thought the dead needed to honor or anything, but because he was annoyed that the Celts still insisted on launching a Samhain-like festival the October 31st.
Old traditions are hard to stifle, however, and they are used to migrating from one culture to another, especially if they are super cool. The eve of all the reels has finally made its way from Britannia to Rome, and it is still celebrated in Italy today. But while American Halloween is primarily costumed Trick-gold-Treating children and elaborate Halloween displays in shop windows and suburban neighborhoods, Italy has really great Halloween festivals at all day souls. In Triora, city dwellers dress like witches to remember the witches' trials from 1587 to 1589. In Borgo a Mozzano, Lucida Mansi crosses the city with the devil and an entourage of demons. If you are not in big elaborate festivals, you can light a bonfire in your front yard - this tradition is said to help lead the spirits of the dead house.
1 By putting up with spirits who don't know when its time to leave
For the Igbo people in Nigeria, the dead do not come back just for a day. No, they totally exceeded their welcome, hanging out for six months, eating all the house offerings, and not paying rent. Fortunately, the ODO Festival in their honor only happens once every two years, so it's not like Nigerians have to spend half of their lives begging the dead to please just go out and get a job, already.
The spirits of the dead arrive around Halloween, though a Nigerian website says they can make an appearance anytime between September and November. Called "ODO," the dead actually have a physical presence during the Festival - they are played by anonymous members, all men of the "death cult society". the ODO wear elaborate masks and are greeted back with a celebration before returning to the homes they lived in, where they receive food and gifts. Then the party begins, with music, food, and performances by the ODO characters that go on more or less non-stop for literally months at a time. Just before ODO's departure in the spring, they reconstruct the story of their time among the living on a stage in the city square. Then, city dwellers get 18 months to recover from the festivities before he starts again.
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