HALLOWEEN – The Feast of Screams!

HALLOWEEN – The Feast of Screams

A drive around the city at night and you can tell that the festival of darkness is around the corner.
The All hallows eve is one night observed around the world on October 31st dedicated towards honouring the dead, where people dress to scare, one night where you get to be someone else, put on a mask and celebrate this festival of scares and screams.

This festival is now believed to have taken over even “Christmas”. Seven in 10 Americans (69%) celebrated Halloween last year, up 8% from 64% in 2010.  We were told by Mr Shaw “Halloween has taken over Christmas preparations now, the crazy hulabloo for Halloween has crossed all boundaries and the expected expenditure budget of a common man.”

The average person spent $72.31 on Halloween decorations, costumes and candy in 2011, up 9% from $66.28 in 2010. Halloween spending reached $6.86 billion last year, a healthy 18% increase from $5.8 billion in 2010. The preparation for this festival starts months in advance. People start decorating their houses, planning their parties, getting their candies and deciding their costumes- which are modelled after supernatural figures such as monsters, ghosts, skeletons, witches, and devils.

Stores have a special section dedicated to halloween goodies be it candies, pumpkins, skeletons, cob webs, ghost boo's or the costumes. Restaurants have a special halloween menu, amusement parks have hallow- weekends which include a halloween parade and visiting haunted attractions, corn maze, hay rides. Some of the typical halloween activities includes trick or treating or playing pranks, telling scary stories or watching horror films and of course  halloween costume parties.

It also interesting to find out that not everyone believes in halloween or favours it. A community of Christians say that the festival has deviated from its origin. For them, celebrating halloween is showing that they believe in the demons, and they as followers of the Christ are completely against it, nobody in their family celebrates this festival. They believe that this festival is just about dressing up and looking scary or funny. As Mrs Star at a Halloween store “Hobby Lobby” tells us “It was traditionally believed that Halloween was celebrated to honour the souls of the dead who wandered the earth until All Saints' Day which is celebrated on November 1. Whereas, on the other hand, All Hallows' Eve, which is celebrated on the night of October 31, provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving onto the next world. To avoid being recognised by a soul, Christians would wear masks and costumes to disguise themselves.”

Although this practice has taken a completely different turn today and is perpetuated through people guising (trick or treating). And almost everyone who goes to a public school or a non-religious private school takes part in Halloween and even immigrants to this country who have never even heard of the holiday celebrate it as well.

Therefore, Halloween has become a Hallmark and people will continue to give candy to Trick or Treaters unless they learn something new that will change their mind.