About Halloween in the World

Halloween has been taken in by other countries around the world but they have different ways for celebrating it. This holiday has its moment in Mexico, complete with costumes dealing with death or disaster and fun- size candy, the main events happen the following two days, November first and second, for D?­a de Los Muertos. Mexicans welcome back the souls of their deceased loved ones by decorating their graves with meaningful marigolds and hold candlelit processions. For D?­a de Los Muertos they celebrate like any other party with food but one interesting thing I read was that they have pan de Muertos and spun- sugar skulls that are eaten to help ease the pain of death.

La Catrina, is a lady calavera dressed in fancy European clothing, created to copy the Mexican upper class during the Mexican Revolution. This tradition is also meant to make fun at death itself, it is seen in decoration of a house, public displays, and thousands of people that paint their faces to celebrate the cycle of life, from start to end. Ireland traditions are much like Americas but have some differences. In Ireland Halloween is less about dead spirts and more about dressing up and having fun. Ireland has what they call The Bonfire where the community would get together to light huge fires to ward off bad fortune and evil spirits for the upcoming year. Like the United States and Mexico, the people of Ireland would wear costumes. They would wear their costumes around the bonfire and many people would be dressed up in elaborate animal skins and heads. Ireland also has a special dinner called Colcannon. This is a traditional dinner that they had on Halloween night before you go out and have fun. It is made with boiled onions, curly kale, and raw onions. There are many games that are played on the night of Halloween and snap apple or bobbing for apples is one of them in Ireland. This was great information to research to see how Halloween contrast also compares in different cultures and countries than the one I celebrate in.

From fancy dress costumes and Halloween displays in the yard to people being candy corn crazy, there’s no denying that Halloween is very popular in the states. With Halloween, there are traditions that have been around for a while such as decorating your house to new ones amongst younger kids such as “booing”. This is when you creep up to someone’s doorstep, drop off a bucket of candy, ring the door bell and run. The people that receive the bucket of candy are then to return the favor to someone else in the neighborhood. Although they are older traditions they still hang on to modern day. These traditions consist of Jack-O’-Lanterns, Ghosts, Costumes, Trick-or-Treating, Black Cats, Bobbing for Apples, Pranks, Candles and Bonfires, and the infamous Candy Corn. In America, Halloween is one of the only holidays that isn’t serious about honoring something or someone. We can make fun of ourselves and others. We can laugh about the little things in life like politics, what’s going on in the world, and death. Halloween is the holiday to be whoever you want to be, break the mold, have fun. You can be someone else. Halloween is the holiday when you knock on the door of someone you have no clue who they are and expect them to give you something fun or sweet. When you get to the stranger’s door after dark, someone answers, you yell a phrase “trick or treat” and you expect a kind reward from the stranger. Halloween is all about trusting those you don’t know well, it could be you knocking on their door oy opening your own to them. That is what makes Halloween so special and popular.

Halloween is actually more Irish than St. Patrick’s Day! Halloweens origins come from Celtic festival for the dead known as “Samhain.” This is the day that children love because they get to go out and get candy dressed up in whatever they want to. It’s great for everyone that takes part in it because the people get to see smiles on children’s faces and the crazy, spooky, or funny costumes that they come up with. There are many different ways to celebrate Halloween as I discovered that in Mexico it is known as D?­a de Los Muertos. If you have not heard of the many traditions I have listed it would be great to try it out with your family, friends, or people you don’t even know. That’s what makes Halloween so popular and great.

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