~Learning the British Culture~: Halloween

Halloween, also known as Hallowe'en, Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. Halloween has its origins in pagan festivals in the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The very word “Halloween” has Christianic origins and means "hallowed evening" or "holy evening". Regarding the historical background of the festival, people thought that during that period, the spirits of the dead were supposed to come alive and walk among the living. Therefore, they used to wear different kinds of costumes so as to protect themselves from those spirits when walking outside.

Halloween Today

On October 31, people gather together and hold parties to celebrate the Halloween festival or watch horror movies either at home or in the cinema. Common costumes that people wear for the festival are ghosts, skeletons, vampires, witches and other scary suits and the main symbols of Halloween are jack-o'-lanterns which are carved pumpkins with monstrous faces, spiders and bats. Another common tradition associated with this festival is “Trick or Treat”. Many children dress up in different costumes and visit other people’s homes. They knock on their doors asking for some treat (candies or other sweets) and those who refuse to do so get some kind of a trick instead.

Traditional Food

As regards the traditional food of this particular day, according to certain Western Christian religious groups people should avoid to eat meat during that day and should prefer vegetarian food instead. Some types of food associated with Halloween are candy and caramel apples, bonfire toffee, pumpkin pie, soul cakes.