What is Halloween?
Halloween is a festival held every year on October 31. People display lanterns carved from pumpkins, and children dress up as ghosts and witches and go from house to house saying “Trick or treat!” to receive sweets. The name comes from the eve of the Christian feast of All Hallows (All Saints’ Day).
Its origin: the ancient Celtic “Samhain”
Halloween’s roots are said to lie in “Samhain,” a festival of the Celtic peoples who lived in ancient Ireland and Scotland. In the Celtic calendar, November 1 was the start of the year, and the night before, October 31, was the border between the end of summer and the beginning of the dark, cold winter.
On this night the boundary between this world and the next was thought to blur, and the spirits of the dead, fairies (elves) and monsters were believed to come into this world. People lit bonfires and are said to have worn masks so the monsters would take them for one of their own, which is thought to be one origin of costumes.
The legend of the jack-o’-lantern
An Irish folktale is told about the jack-o’-lantern. A man named Jack who tricked the devil could enter neither heaven nor hell after death, and he still wanders with an ember from the devil placed inside a turnip. Lanterns were originally made from turnips, but Irish immigrants to America began using pumpkins, which were easier to obtain.
Halloween in Japan
In Japan, Halloween spread from the 2000s on through theme park events and became established as an occasion to enjoy costumes. Japan’s “Obon,” when ancestral spirits return home, and the Samhain idea of the dead returning have something in common.
