By: Mya Starks What is Halloween? Boo! Let’s get spooky! What is Halloween? Hallowe’en, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints’ Eve is a holiday celebrated on the 31st of October every year. It’s celebrated on the 31st because it’s the first day of Allhallowtide, which is the western Christian season that surrounds the triduum of Halloween. The triduum begins with All Hallows’ Eve (Halloween) on October 31, then goes to All Hallows’ Day (All Saints’ Day) celebrated on November 1, and culminates with All Souls’ Day celebrated November 2. The holiday Halloween has quite the amount of religious background. To Christians, this time of the liturgical year is to remember the dead, martyrs, saints, faithful, and departed Christians. They believed a folk tale that said the veil between the material world and the afterlife was at its most transparent. Around the world, Christians celebrate this holiday in different ways, like visiting graveyards to pray and place flowers on their loved ones’ graves. They also commemorate by attending church and lighting candles. Some even avoid meat and feast on vegetarian foods, like apples, potato pancakes, and soul cakes. Halloween is celebrated all over the world with many different traditions and many unique ways. It is celebrated in most Western countries; however, it’s strictly not celebrated in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Turkey. In Canada, children begin street guising around 6-7 p.m. They sing carols and make rhymes then get rewarded with nuts and candies. When trick or treating, children are given candy or spare change. Typically, the spare change goes to a donation company, UNICEF. Canadians spend an average of $350 million just on candy for this Celtic festival. Halloween originated in Ireland. People celebrate with popular traditions, like trick or treating, lighting fireworks, carving pumpkins, bobbing apples, and dressing up. Emergency services are often busy during this time from bonfires and fireworks, which are illegal in Ireland. Eating barmbrack is the spotlight of an Irish Halloween. Barmbrack is a sweet bread that’s a bit rich with dried fruits, such as sultanas and raisins. Usually, the dried fruits are soaked in tea or whiskey overnight. The bread is decorated with animals, like birds on top. The loaf contains six items: a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin, a bean, and a ring. Each object has a symbolic meaning to it: to receive the pea in their loaf of bread would mean they wouldn’t marry anyone within the year; the stick would mean to be in an unhappy marriage; a piece of cloth means bad luck or to become poor; the coin, would be good fortune or to become rich; the bean would be to have a future without money; and the ring means the person will get married within that year. Picture by Patrica Stanfford via Bigger Bolder Baking ![]() Picture by Raymund via Ang Sarap In the Philippines, Halloween is celebrated from October 31 to November 2. On the night of Halloween, miscellaneous things like clothing, shoes, and plants go “missing” just to appear the next day in the owner’s yard or on the street. It’s believed that the souls of loved ones took the item and placed it somewhere to form a deeper message behind it. Traditional trick or treating is replaced with the tradition of Pangangaluluwâ. It’s when groups of people, usually children but also adults go house to house singing a song in exchange for alms or money. They sing songs about purgatory and for the dead. Afterward, the people are given suman as an alm. Suman is a rich and sticky rice cake that’s cooked with coconut milk and steamed in palm leaves. Suman can be topped with a rich and creamy coconut caramel sauce. ![]() Similar to Halloween, All Saint’s Day, and All Soul’s Day is Día de los Muertos. Día de los Muertos translates to the “Day of the Dead.” The celebration begins on November 1 and ends on November 2. It’s a holiday that originated in Mexico and is now celebrated in many places like Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and United States. Although the theme of this holiday is death, the point is love, and so the holiday is more of a cheerful one rather than a gloomy one. The significance of the holiday is to show respect and remembrance for deceased family members. Día de los Muertos is not only focused on the dead but also on close family and friends. People celebrate together by singing, dancing, and dressing up with costumes and face paint. A popular tradition for Dia de los Muertos is building ofrendas (altars) for their deceased family members. In the altars or shrines are placed a picture of the person, candles, food, trinkets, symbolic items, papel picado (pierced paper/confetti), and drinks like atole. Atole is a corn-based drink with cinnamon and vanilla. The shrines are usually decorated in private and placed in the decorator’s home or on the person’s grave. Another tradition is visiting graves with offerings like candy sugar skulls, sweet bread, tequila, and mezcal. Lastly, a common tradition setting cempazuchitl (marigold flowers) all over. These flowers are known as the “flowers of the dead.” They’re believed to lure the souls of the dead to their family's home. The bright petals and strong smell is what guides the souls.
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