By: Stephen Chen
Halloween, one of the oldest traditional festivals in the world, involves ghosts and the dead. Originally, the holiday was known as Samhain festival. More than 2000 years ago, the ancient Celtic people living in Britain gathered each October 31st to celebrate the harvest and offer sacrifices to gods with crops.
In modern times, when we think of Halloween, we don’t usually think of sacrifice, but instead of little kids painting on tiger face paint, or pulling on mermaid dresses. So, how did costumes become crucial to Halloween? In the early forms of Halloween, people believe that in this period the souls of ancestor and evil spirits came to this world. In the face of evil spirits who destroy crops, kidnap children, and bring bad luck to mankind, people began to dress up as the same kinds as the ghosts in order to protect themselves. Now, the costumes of people are more real and close to our lives. Children dress up as the heroes in films, or someone they love in the real world. Halloween seems to be an open and diversified festival.
Also on this day, many children go through the streets that in their neighbourhood and want to get some candy from their neighbours with “trick or treat”. The host family probably wears scary clothes and bring some candy to these small “ghosts”.
Like dressing up, jack-o ‘- lanterns were originally intended to frighten evil spirits away. In addition, they also were said to guide the way for the souls of dead family members and friends. However, instead of glowing orange pumpkins, the original Halloween laterns were tiny carved turnips. After the culture of Halloween was introduced to the United States, these lanterns gradually transitioned to pumpkins, which were easier processing. Today, pumpkins firmly take the lead as the most popular lantern material, and many of us would probably be shocked to see carved turnips decorating our neighbor’s doorstep.
These lanterns are more than a mere tradition. It turns out there is an interesting myth behind “jack-o ‘- lanterns”. A long time ago, there was a stingy and rude man named Jack. On the night of Halloween, he met the devil who wanted to take his soul. But Jack cheated the devil, so that the devil agreed with him that he would not take his soul again. Later, Jack, who died at the end of his life, came to the gate of hell. However, the devil didn’t take his soul, so the devil asked Jack to return to the original place. Jack had to turn back along the original road, but the road was dark and windy. Jack asks the devil to give him a light, and the devil gives him a fire from hell out of pity. But Jack didn’t have a lantern in his hand, so he hollowed out the fallen turnip to replace it.