Halloween is one of the oldest holidays in the world, dating back to pagan times but over the last fifty years it has spread throughout the world and today it is celebrated almost everywhere, in one way or another.
The reason is simple: Halloween is a fun holiday and it's good, clean, harmless fun for kids and adults alike.
Although many believe that Halloween is a holiday that originated in the United States, it actually originated from the ancient Celtic traditions of Samhain.
Samhain means “end of summer” and marks the end of the harvest season by symbolizing the division between the world of the living and the world of the dead.
People wore costumes and lit bonfires to ward off the ghosts of the dead as they celebrated the Celtic New Year.
As time has passed, Halloween has evolved into the holiday it is today with trick-or-treating, jack-o'-lantern, unique costumes and parades but there are still some differences between the British and Irish way of celebrating and the American one.
Here are some of those differences: in the United States costumes aren't always scary, trick-or-treating is the core event of the celebration and pumpkins are carved before the day comes.
In America, in fact, you can basically dress up as anything: your favorite star, a character you love, anything sexy or make your own funny costume. In America, there are people who spend months preparing the perfect costume for Halloween because they want to wear something unique or super funny.
When it comes to trick or treating the adults stay at home with huge tubs of sweets waiting, while the children run in groups ringing the doorbells, house after house.
If children see a lit lantern outside the door or decorations they know that house is participating and waiting to give away some treats.
The typical Halloween candies are corn shaped white, orange and yellow sugar drops called Candy Corn. There are people who love them and those who hate them, but if you ever find yourself in the United States this time of year you will certainly be given some.
Halloween in America includes costume parties, children knocking on doors asking for candies and houses decorated with lanterns and spooky objects.
Some people go very far with decorations, so much so that some got sued for procured alarm because they staged some murder or cemetery in their backyard or something similar.
Americans also associate Halloween with pumpkins. Not only the classic Jack O’Lantern carved pumpkin but pumpkin soup, pumpkin pied, pumpkin candies and even beer!
Among the American Halloween traditions, there is that of defacing houses.
You may have seen in movies that good pranks are organized and a group of people dirty the house of someone (maybe they have done something wrong, maybe not) with eggs and toilet paper in large quantity.
This is a favorite tradition among American college students but it’s not a recent one; it actually dates back to the 19th century when pranks were organized by kids to neighboring homes.
When it comes to Halloween traditions, Americans don't just stop at pumpkins: giant spiders, graveyards, cobweb strips and countless demons and ghosts and various monsters can be found in abundance in any backyards and streets of American neighborhoods.
Window shops are heavily decorated and so are buildings, banks and even some offices.
People are not prohibited from wearing costumes to work on this date, at times they are even encouraged to do so by the management.
Let us prepare for Halloween 2023!
