Creepy stories that make kids afraid to go shopping for Halloween candy. Scary phrases and idioms for Halloween: be prepared
Helloween or Halloween is celebrated annually in many countries on the eve of "All Saints' Day" on the night of October 31 to November 1.
History of Halloween.
Now it is already quite difficult to find where the roots of this holiday come from, but it is believed that the ancient Celts became its founders. The great-grandfather of Halloween was the Celtic pagan holiday Samhai, which marked the end of summer and the harvest. There was also a belief that on this night (from October 31 to November 1) the gates between the world of the living and the dead open slightly, and the dead come to our world. To scare away evil spirits, people put on scary masks, and to call on good spirits, they put food and various offerings at the door of the house. Until now, in Northern Scotland and Ireland, on the night of October 31, it is customary to perform rituals to calm the dead and tell legends about deceased ancestors.
Irish and British immigrants brought Halloween with them. So it got its distribution in the USA and Canada.
Why is it customary to go door to door and ask for candy on Halloween?
It used to be believed that on this night, fairies and other magical entities dressed up as beggars and went around people's houses, asking for refreshments. Those who did not skimp were subsequently rewarded, but various troubles awaited the greedy owners. Now children go from house to house and ask for sweets, and adults treat them with pleasure.
During the Samhai festival, the Celts made a ritual fire at night. It was considered a good tradition to bring a piece of this fire to your home. People piled burning coals into carved turnips and carried them like lanterns to their homes.
Subsequently, the pumpkin replaced the turnip, as it turned out to be easier to cut. Now the main symbol of Halloween has become the so-called Jack lamp (from the English. Jack-o-lenterns, Jack-lantern). It is a pumpkin in which a face with an evil smile is carved, and a candle is placed inside the pumpkin. Jack is believed to ward off evil spirits.
How is Halloween celebrated today?
Today, Halloween is celebrated as a masquerade. Men and women dress up in incredible Halloween costumes. There are a variety of images - witches, the dead, vampires, goblins and other representatives of the underworld. Many people decorate their houses and yards. Here, too, no one limits their imagination, and they create the surroundings of crypts, hang artificial cobwebs with spiders and bats on the walls, put garden scarecrows, skeletons in coffins and Jackie-lanterns in the yard. Children go from house to house asking for candy. And adults are happy to distribute prepared treats. On this night, it is customary to tell horror stories, scare the neighbors and have fun in the style of any wickedness.
Halloween is a good and fun holiday!
But, despite all its attributes, Halloween is a very kind and cheerful holiday that has nothing to do with evil. On this day, you can once again have fun, get together with family and friends, noisily celebrate the harvest, thank good spirits for their help, and drive away the evil ones with your terrible appearance.
Every fall, when it's time to stock up on a huge amount of Halloween candy, dress yourself up for a party, and go door to door begging for candy from the neighbors, don't forget to say "Thank you!" a culture that started this tradition 2,000 years ago. So how did this strange tradition of handing out candy to strangers on demand on this day begin?
old traditions
Let's travel back in time to medieval Iron Age Europe and get to know the Celts who lived at that time in Ireland, Scotland, Great Britain and northern France. For centuries, they believed that ghosts returned from the world of the dead on Samhain (Samhain - the end of summer) on October 31, right before their New Year. Traditionally, this day marked the end of the harvest and long sunny days and the beginning of darker days and harsher living conditions. On this night, people built bonfires, dressed up in costumes to look like evil spirits and scare them away, and made a sacrifice at the stake, consisting of part of the crop and animals, to appease the many gods and protect themselves from potential harm. This ancient idea of giving gifts to gain patronage has also affected today's customs associated with the game of "trick or treat".
As a result, the Catholic Church established a holiday sanctioned by it to honor and remember those who have gone to another world. This holiday was called "All Saints Day" (All Saints, or All Hallowed Day) and was originally scheduled for the spring, but eventually began to be celebrated on November 1st, most likely in order to replace the pagan ritual of remembering the dead. By moving the Catholic holiday to the day after Samhain, the church hoped that the holiday could shift attention from ghosts and evil spirits to remembrance and prayer for the dead. The night before All Saints' Day became known as "All-hallows Eve", which soon developed into the now well-known word "Halloween".
How did the custom of playing Trick or Treat on Halloween begin?
When Irish and English immigrants came to America, they brought some of their old traditions with them. On these holidays, they gave the poor beggars "soul cakes" (soul cakes). Later, children dressed in various costumes would go a-souling, holding lanterns made of turnips rather than gourds, and put on a little show in order to get treats or some money. As they wandered from door to door, they were rewarded with ale, money, and food. Soon the tradition of dressing up and going from house to house asking for food or money on All Saints' Eve swept across America. Due to the fact that people began to celebrate Halloween in all states, the tradition of handing out food and small gifts has also taken root.
Why candy?
At the end of the 20th century, Halloween parties for children and adults became very popular. They took place using costumes, games, and seasonal food treats that were served in every household. In the 1920s and 30s, Halloween became even more popular, but the holiday was marred by vandalism. By the 1950s, Halloween began to be positioned exclusively as a children's holiday, with the help of civic leaders. Playing "Trick or Treat" was encouraged as a way for communities to share this holiday with their children, in the hope that by receiving treats and small gifts, the children would not be mischievous in the neighborhood. For many years, children have been given various gifts and treats, but today the most popular treat is candy - children look forward to it the most.
Sweet Treats for the Goblins!
Halloween has become a big holiday in the US - the second most popular after Christmas. Almost $6 billion is spent every year in America on this holiday. Also, according to statistics, a quarter of sweets sold throughout America are bought on these few days. Trick or Treat bags are filled with a variety of candies, from sweet cakes to unique chocolates and unusual sweets. The classic candies are becoming more and more popular, evoking memories of yesteryear Halloween and delighting a new generation with the discovery of delicious treats from days long gone.
While the house-to-house tradition continues to be popular with children, community harvest festivals are becoming more common, and many Americans are hosting Halloween parties. Decorations are hung throughout the house, and a tray is placed with various types of sweets and snacks, including treats that are not usually thrown into a bag for children. Along with cakes, homemade cookies, caramel apples, and other treats, a punch bowl is placed, sometimes with an icy hand floating in the middle of it.
For thousands of years and on different continents, people have celebrated this annual custom of asking for and receiving gifts. We are just lucky that today, instead of burning crops or sacrificing, we can enjoy the holiday by eating candy!
Have you already decided who you will be this Halloween? The holiday is coming soon, October 31st. And this year it also falls on Saturday, so we just have to have a lot of fun! Ideas on how to celebrate the "Eve of All Saints' Day" are best peeped, of course, from the Americans, who celebrate this day on a special scale.
The most important thing on Halloween is to find a costume you like. Then you can decide what you want to do next. You can go to a party, or you can stay at home and give out trick-or-treat candies to children.
Trick-or-treat or how to distribute candy on Halloween
Sweets must be in wrappers. Children are unlikely to take homemade cookies or anything similar from you. And here it’s not at all about the desire of children to eat more expensive sweets. It's just that factory-wrapped candies seem safer. After all, neither the children nor the parents know you.
Sets of these candies are sold in all stores (trick-or-treat candy). These sets are pre-mixed with different types of small popular sweets (for example, MilkyWay, Twix, Snickers). Some activists are protesting against the distribution of sweets, as such an amount of sugar is not very healthy. There are alternatives to such gifts, although they are not very popular. You can distribute school supplies with the theme of autumn and Halloween, small toys, decorative ornaments to children. In short, all those little things that attracted you so much as a child. Remember that everything must be in the package!
Of course, children are supervised by their parents or older children. So don't be surprised if you find a 15-year-old adult girl in a suit behind the door, who accompanies her younger brothers on a candy trip.
candy
Chocolate - chocolates
Trick-or treat - a custom in which on the evening of October 31, children go from house to house and ask for treats
Costumes - costumes
Decorations - decorations
How to decorate your house for Halloween
Many Americans decorate their homes, whether they go to a party or stay home and spoil their kids with candy. A couple of weeks before the holiday, pumpkins line up in front of the front door, zombies sit on the steps, and black cats appear in the windows. The scarier your jewelry, the better.
Halloween decorations are kept in a certain color scheme. Let's see what color symbolizes what.
Orange(orange) = pumpkins (pumpkins), jack o "lanterns (pumpkin lanterns)
Black(black) = night (night), witches (witches), black cats (black cats), bats (bats), vampires (vampires)
White(white) = ghosts (ghosts), mummies (mummies), a full moon (full moon)
Red(red) = blood (blood), fire (fire), demons (demons)
Purple(purple) = the supernatural (supernatural), mysticism (mysticism)
Green(green) = goblins (goblins), monsters (monsters), zombies (zombies), aliens (aliens), Frankenstein (Frankenstein)
Almost every store, from grocery to construction, can offer you a lot of different decorations (decorations) for this holiday.
Some people, however, want to decorate the house somehow in a special way for Halloween. This is how these light shows work.
Halloween symbols
Like any holiday, this day has its own "symbols". Here, as always, one simple rule applies: the scarier, the better. It is traditionally believed that the following things refer to "All Saints' Eve":
Bat- bat
black cat- black cat
Сrow- Crow
Goblin- goblin
Haunted house- House with the ghosts. By the way, many Americans go to such houses before Halloween. Many amusement parks offer such attractions before this holiday.
horror movie- horror
Owl- owl
Spider- Spider
spider web- spider web
Halloween costumes
For this holiday, you can dress up as you want. Moreover, almost any costume can be found ready-made, well, or buy parts and make it yourself. Halloween clothing can be found online and in Halloween and holiday stores. Even an ordinary supermarket will have a selection of Halloween costumes.
Once upon a time, Americans only wore scary costumes on this day. But now it is no longer so important. For girls, the main thing is to look sexy and maybe even a little depraved (slutty), for guys it’s cool and fun. So get ready for an invasion of sexy kitties, nurses, witches, flight attendants, schoolgirls and so on. 
You can buy costumes for couples, for a group of friends. Remember the costumes Ted, Marshall and Lily wore from How I Met Your Mother?
Of course, you can also find classic costumes:
devil - the devil
Frankenstein - Frankenstein
ghost
Mummy - mummy
Skeleton - skeleton
Vampire - vampire
Witch - witch
wizard
zombie
Every year there are some new costumes that reflect the events that have taken place recently. This year, for example, a suit and wig under Donald Trump are in fashion. And for the girls, a fashionable dress appeared: brown and blue, the color of which was so actively clarified in social networks.
What color is the dress? 
So get out from under the covers, make your costume more interesting, gather your friends and celebrate Halloween! Let's light up this one of the funniest days of the year. And maybe something interesting and mystical will even happen to you. Happy Halloween!
Shutikova Anna
In autumn, when the leaves change color and the air becomes cool and damp, large orange pumpkins, delicious sweets and scary costumes appear in stores. We all know that with the onset of October, people begin to prepare for the most terrible holiday on the planet - Halloween. This is a night when adults transform into witches, vampires, zombies and other evil spirits, and children go from house to house, begging the owners for candy and scaring them with the words “Pay off, otherwise I will bewitch!” (eng. "Trick or treat!"). This tradition originated about 100 years ago, but does not lose its popularity to this day.
Begging for sweets has its roots in the Middle Ages. Before the European peoples and states adopted Christianity, the Celts celebrated Samhain every year - a holiday dedicated to the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter, as well as the time when the dead descended to Earth and roamed the world. To appease the souls of the dead, people left food, drinks, various objects and things near the front door. As they prepared to leave home that evening, they dressed up in creepy costumes and put on scary masks to trick the evil spirits into believing they were one of them. When Christianity spread throughout Europe, Samhain was renamed All Saints' Day, on the eve of which Halloween is celebrated.
And now, after a short introduction, let's return to our article, from which you will learn about what begging for sweets on the night of October 31 to November 1 can turn out for children and adults.
If you don't want to look like a Halloween jester, then dress in the right and high-quality clothes. Visit the boutique online store and choose quality items for yourself. So at least save some money.
1. Fat people don't get sweets - 2013
Last year, a Fargo, North Dakota woman decided not to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids on Halloween because she thought they were "too fat." The woman, about whom only her name is Cheryl, is known, openly expressed her opinion in letters addressed to their parents.
Happy Halloween and happy holidays, dear neighbors!
This letter fell into your hands for a reason. Have you ever heard the saying: “The whole village takes part in raising a child”? I want to say that I was very disappointed in our Fargo.
Your child, in my opinion, is too plump; he should not eat sweets on these holidays.
I hope that you, as good parents, will take all necessary measures and will continue to monitor your child's food culture.
Thanks to.
These are the messages she handed out to neighborhood kids instead of treats on Halloween 2013.
2. The joke failed - 2013
On Halloween 2013, Ken Spooner came up with the idea to play a prank on the local "candy beggars". When evening came, he changed into a skeleton costume, sat on the porch of his house with a large bowl of sweets in his hands and began to wait for the guests. The first to visit him were two little girls, who were accompanied by their mother. When they saw Spooner, they broke into loud weeping. To calm them down, he had to give away all the sweets he had.
3. Halloween Exhibitionist - 2013
Thanks to John Vowles, Halloween 2013 will be remembered forever by the residents of Delton, Florida. When two teenagers knocked on his door shouting “Pay off, otherwise I’ll bewitch!” He came out to them in an open dressing gown without underwear. The boys complained about the man to their father, who decided to call the police. Vowles met the cops who arrived at the scene of the incident in the same form.
4 Halloween Murder - 2013
On the evening of October 31, 2013, 14-year-old Jordan Steimnets, who went to beg for sweets from his neighbors, was hit by a car. He died from his injuries on the way to the hospital. According to police, the driver did not notice the boy because he was wearing a black suit without reflective elements and, on top of that, was walking along an unlit street.
5. Accident with two small victims - 2012
This story serves as a reminder of the importance of looking around when crossing the road. In 2012, in the northern part of the city of Houston (Texas), two small children in Halloween costumes, crossing the street, fell under the wheels of a car. Adults who did not follow them detained the driver and called the police. Fortunately, everything went without serious consequences.
6. Cocaine instead of sweets - 2012
In 2012, police arrested Donald Green Jr., a resident of the city of Oldham (England), because on Halloween he mistakenly handed out packets of cocaine to small children instead of sweets. On a festive evening, three children knocked on the door of a young man, the oldest of whom was eight years old. Greene, who did not expect the visit of the little guests, put his hands in his pockets, where, as he thought, there were gummies, and, without looking, put packets of drugs into the baskets of "candy beggars".
The father of the children was a police officer. Greene was arrested immediately after the mistake was discovered.
7. Armed "candy beggars" - 2012
On the evening of October 31, 2012, in one of the districts of Tacoma (a city in the state of Washington), a group of teenagers (13-17 years old) in blue bandanas walked the streets with a loaded 22-caliber pistol. Threatening passers-by, they took away their watches, jewelry, purses, wallets and even - oddly enough - sweets.
After a couple of hours, all six juvenile delinquents were detained. All stolen items returned to their rightful owners.
8. Woe-mother, 2012
On October 31, 2012, a Vernon, Connecticut resident named Amber Haazer was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs after police saw the woman's car stopped in the middle of the road with people dressed in carnival costumes running around her. beggars for sweets. Haazer's young son called 911, which is probably the saddest thing in the whole story. The unfortunate mother was taken to the police station, where she stayed until bail was made for her in the amount of 5 thousand dollars.
9. Stolen sweets - 2011
On October 31, 2011, five teenagers were arrested in Dale City (a city located 35 kilometers southwest of Washington, Virginia) on charges of theft and gang beating. Guess what these juvenile delinquents stole? The correct answer is sweets.
A group of teenagers, the oldest of whom was 19 years old, met two "candy beggars" on the street and demanded to give them baskets of sweets. They did not agree to do this even under the threat of using firearms. Then the teenagers beat the children and took sweets from them, for which they were subsequently arrested.
10. Robbery under the guise of "candy beggars" - 2009
On the evening of October 31, 2009, when residents of East Orange, New Jersey, were celebrating Halloween, "candy beggars" knocked on the house of a 60-year-old man. The owner opened the door and saw three armed robbers on the threshold. They broke into the house and began to turn everything upside down in search of valuables.
After some time, the police arrived, who, apparently, were called by the victim's neighbor. They managed to detain all the robbers: two of them - when trying to escape through the back door, the third - in the basement, where he was with the owner of the house.
11. Knife under the feet instead of treats - 2009
This story took place in Ocean City, New Jersey. On the evening of October 31, 2009, children who came to ask their neighbor for sweets received a sharp knife instead. Michael Mandzukic, who later turned out to be heavily intoxicated, instead of giving the little kids candy, threw a kitchen knife at them, which landed near their feet.
Mandžukić stated that he did not wish harm on the children; he just wanted to scare them a little.
12. Thieves who stole sweets - 2006
On the evening of October 31, 2006, in Salt Lake City, Utah, two young people were arrested for stealing sweets intended for children.
They, wearing the masks of Freddy Krueger and the character from the movie "Scream", drove by car to the house of a woman who was distributing sweets to children, snatched sweets from her and disappeared in an unknown direction. The police managed to find them and arrest them.
13. Porn instead of sweets - 2004
In 2004, Andrew McClure Johnson, a resident of Boulder, Colorado, gave pornographic DVDs instead of candy to 13-year-old boys who came to ask him for sweets on Halloween. The children complained about the man to their grandmother, who, in turn, reported him to the police.
14. "Sweet beggars" who were fired from pneumatic weapons - 1990
Back in 1990, the Los Angeles County police arrested two teenagers because they fired airguns at a group of children who were picking Halloween sweets in their area on the evening of October 31st. Fortunately, none of them were seriously injured.
Material prepared by Rosemarina
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Halloween is traditionally celebrated in English-speaking countries, although it is not an official holiday. Since the end of the 20th century, during the process of Americanization and globalization, the fashion for Halloween paraphernalia has also emerged in most non-English-speaking countries in Europe and the CIS. Halloween is informally celebrated in some other countries with close cultural ties to the US or the UK, such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, a number of island countries in Oceania, and more recently Russia and other CIS countries.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "Halloween" was first mentioned in the 16th century as a Scottish abbreviation of the English phrase All-Hallows-Even (Russian. All Saints' Evening, even - short for evening (Russian evening); in Scots it is read as "Halloween "). So at that time they called the night before All Saints' Day. Although the phrase All Hallows can be found in Old English (ealra halgena mssedg - Rus. All Saints Day), the phrase All-Hallows-Even does not occur in written sources before 1556.
Historian Nicholas Rogers, who studied the origins of Halloween, noted that, despite attempts to connect its origin with the ancient Roman holiday Parentalium, the prototype of Halloween most likely originated only with the advent of the Celtic pagan festival Samhain, a description of which appears in Old Irish literature from the 10th century. . The name of this holiday comes from the Old Irish word Samhain, which meant "end of summer" and later became the Irish name for the month of November.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Folklore, Samhain was a holiday for all the peoples of the British Isles at the same time and was strongly associated with death and the supernatural. At the same time, there is no evidence that in pagan times the holiday had any special significance other than agricultural and seasonal. It is traditionally believed that the perception of Samhain as a dark pagan holiday associated with the dead owes its appearance to Christian monks of the X-XI centuries, who wrote about it about two centuries after the establishment of All Saints' Day and about four hundred years after the adoption of Christianity in Ireland. At the same time, already in the 8th century, All Saints' Day began to gradually replace Samhain; thanks to the interpenetration of Gaelic traditions and Catholic rites, the first rudiments of the future Halloween begin to form.
From this moment begins the successive development of the two holidays. Like Samhain, Halloween is traditionally celebrated on the night of October 31st to November 1st. In Scotland and Ireland, Samhain was called Oidhche Samhna and Oiche Samhna (in Scottish and Irish respectively), and modern Gaelic speakers still refer to Halloween as Oiche/Oidhche Samhna, including such a name preserved in the Irish Wikipedia. Until now, in the north of Scotland and Ireland, it is customary to perform rituals to calm the dead and tell legends about ancestors on the night of October 31.
Around the 16th century, a tradition of gaizinga developed - begging for sweets on the night of October 31st. Children and adults put on cloth masks and went from one door to another, demanding treats from the owners and petty shawls. The custom of wearing role-playing costumes and carrying a “jack-o-lantern” during gazing appeared only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and in exchange for money or food, it was initially necessary to offer various entertainments. Subsequently, due to the mass emigration of the Scots and Irish to the United States, Halloween is popularized there as well.
Symbols
Most of the symbols of the holiday have a long history. For example, the tradition of making gourds originates from the Celtic custom of making lanterns to help souls find their way to purgatory. In Scotland, the turnip was the symbol of Halloween, but in North America it was quickly replaced by the pumpkin as a cheaper and more accessible vegetable. The first creation of pumpkin lamps in America was recorded in 1837; this ritual, performed at harvest time, had nothing to do with Halloween until the second half of the 19th century.
Costumes from classic horror films such as The Mummies and Frankenstein's monster are popular. Symbols of autumn, such as village scarecrows, play an important role in the festive decoration of houses. The main themes of Halloween are death, evil, the occult, and monsters. Traditional colors are black and orange.
jack o lantern
The main symbol of the holiday is the so-called Jack Lamp (English Jack-o "-lantern - Jack Lantern). It is a pumpkin on which an ominously grinning face is carved; a lit candle is placed inside the pumpkin. For the first time, "Jack lamps" appeared in the UK, but originally they were made from turnips or turnips.It was believed that such a fruit, left on All Saints' Day near the house, would drive away evil spirits from him.When the tradition of celebrating Halloween spread to the United States, lamps began to be made from pumpkins, more accessible and cheaper.
The origins of this custom can be found in the ancient Irish and British traditions of carving faces on vegetables during various rituals. The modern look of the "Jack lamp" acquired around 1837, at the same time he received this name. By 1866, it was already strongly associated with Halloween. However, in the US, long before the popularization of Halloween, a carved pumpkin was used as one of the symbols of the harvest. By 1900, its use during this holiday gradually came into use.
Oh! - Favorite childhood fruits! - Recalling the old days,
When the vine tree turned purple and the brown nuts fell!
When the wild, ugly faces we carved into its skin
Peered into the darkness with a candle inside!
— John Whittier, Pumpkin (1850)
Suits
Dressing in carnival costumes is a relatively recent element of the holiday. For the first time as a full-fledged custom, it was recorded at the beginning of the 20th century and goes back to the American traditions of costume parties. For the first time, wearing fancy dress on Halloween was recorded in 1895 in Scotland, when masked children went from house to house and received cakes, fruit and money. There is not a single mention of such traditions in the USA, Ireland or England before 1900. In Scotland, children who, dressed in carnival costumes depicting various monsters or other characters, go from house to house and beg for sweets, are called guisers, and the custom itself is Guising (“ga?izing”, from English guise - wearing a mask, attire, comic disguise). Halloween costumes usually go on sale in August.
A study by the US Retail Institute found that in 2005, 53.3 percent of Americans planned to buy a fancy dress for Halloween and intended to spend an average of $38.11 on it. Total costume revenues were $3.3 million in 2005 and $4.96 million in 2006. In 2009, during the economic crisis, the average cost of purchasing Halloween paraphernalia by US citizens decreased by 15% compared to 2008 and amounted to 56 dollars 31 cents.
The main theme of Halloween costumes is various evil spirits or supernatural characters. But nevertheless, in the 19th-20th centuries, not only the costumes of fantastic creatures, but even costumes on completely arbitrary themes, also became popular, although the main motive continues to be the most common. So, in the 2000s, among Halloween costumes one could find not only costumes of vampires, werewolves or witches, but also fairies, queens, pop culture figures and even role-playing costumes with a sexual theme.
Trick-or-treat
The tradition of dressing up in costumes and going from house to house begging for sweets dates back to the Middle Ages and was originally associated with Christmas. In England and Ireland, the poor have long gone door to door and begged for so-called "spiritual cakes" on All Saints' Day (November 1), promising in exchange to pray for the souls of the deceased relatives of the owners. Although this custom is considered to be originally British, researchers have also found references to it in southern Italy. One of the characters in William Shakespeare's comedy "Two Verona" says the phrase "You whine like a beggar on All Saints' Day", which indicates the widespread use of this custom at the end of the 16th century.
Trick-or-treat first began to be used in the United States, the first time its use was recorded in 1934, and he began to actively spread only from 1939. Literally, it can be translated as Trick or Treat, which indicates a joking threat of harm if the owner does not bring treats to the children. But there is no established translation of the term into Russian, and usually it is given in the original, or with a replacement for the phrase wallet or life. Although the term was first mentioned only in the west of North America, by the 1940s it was already widely used throughout the country. In modern times, the phrase has a distinctly jocular connotation and is often used outside of the US, such as in Ireland and Japan, without fear of getting charged with extortion.
Games and other traditions
In addition to begging for sweets and wearing a variety of costumes, the celebration of Halloween is also associated with some specific games and divination. For example, one can come across references to divination with the help of a peel: Scottish girls cut off the peel from apples, trying to make it as long as possible, and threw it over their shoulders. It was believed that the fallen peel took the form of the first letter of the surname of the betrothed. Another custom was based on the well-known belief about Bloody Mary, which today has become a popular urban legend. This fortune-telling consisted in the fact that young girls had to climb the stairs with their backs forward in a dark house and hold a candle in front of a mirror. After that, the face of the future husband was supposed to appear in the mirror, but the girl could also see the skull in the mirror - this meant that she would die without getting married.
attractions
An important tradition of celebrating Halloween is the organization of the so-called Haunted attractions (Russian Attractions inhabited by ghosts), the main purpose of which is to pleasantly scare visitors. The oldest such attraction is the Orton and Spooner Haunted House, opened in 1915. In most cases, this business has a clear seasonal framework. These attractions differ from the usual "haunted houses" in the use of haystacks and corn mazes in symbolism. Events like this bring in an estimated $300-500 million a year in the US and attracted up to 400,000 customers during the industry's peak in 2005. The technical level of such projects is constantly growing, up to the Hollywood level.
In the US, there are a number of requirements for these rides. In addition to the standard compliance with safety rules, they must be equipped with signs warning of thick fog, loud sound, and the like. Usually these attractions are closed to pregnant women and people with a weak heart. According to the law, before opening the attraction must obtain special permission from the inspectors.
Festive table
Because the holiday falls around the time of the apple harvest, most Halloween candy is based on apples. Apple caramel, apples in syrup (sometimes with nuts), apple toffee are prepared especially for the celebration. At first, there was a tradition of handing out candy apples to children, but it quickly faded away due to an urban legend that said that evil people put pins and needles into such sweets. Although such incidents have been reported several times, they have never resulted in serious injury. Many parents were convinced that these cases were provoked by the media, which nurtured hysteria amid initially false rumors.
In turn, in North America, candy corn and candy pumpkins, sweets in the form of corn and pumpkin, are popular. Candy corn is a candy made from sugar, corn syrup, artificial colors and binders. Their recipe and method of preparation have not changed much, the production of candy roots is still based on manual work. Despite its name, pumpkin candy is just a variation of the previous sweet. The main difference between "pumpkins" and "corn" is the use of honey, the more abundant addition of marshmallows and, finally, the often used special low-fat cream.
In addition to a variety of sweets, there is the traditional barmbrack bread, which is prepared in Ireland for various holidays, especially Halloween. When preparing a festive barmbrack, peas, a wooden chip, a piece of cloth, a coin and a ring were hidden in the dough. An object that came across to the eater predicted the future: peas - do not wait for an imminent wedding, a sliver - troubles in family life, a piece of cloth - poverty, a coin - wealth, a ring - an imminent wedding. In accordance with this tradition, barmbreaks with toy rings inside are now sold.
Halloween celebrations around the world and regional differences
After Halloween began to be actively celebrated in the United States and Canada in the 19th century, it has spread throughout the world due to the influence of American culture, while there are a number of regional differences. For example, in Ireland it is customary to arrange large-scale pyrotechnics and bonfires, while in Scotland this custom is absent. Outside the countries where the descendants of the Celts live, the holiday is more commercial in nature than cultural or ritual. In Japan, annual parades are held in honor of the holiday, sometimes reaching a huge number of participants, because of which they create major problems for city services. The most famous event of this kind takes place in the city of Kawasaki, which is considered to be the oldest Halloween venue in Japan.
Christianity
Representatives of various Christian denominations have different attitudes towards the celebration of Halloween. Some parishes of the Church of England support the holiday as part of the Christian tradition of All Saints' Day, and some Protestants celebrate Halloween in memory of the Reformation, which is celebrated on the same day. Father Gabriel Amort, a Vatican exorcist, said that “if American and English children dress up as witches for one night of the year, then this is not a problem. There's nothing wrong if it's just a joke." Many modern Protestant and Catholic clergy see the holiday as a fun event for children, allow it to be held in their parishes, allow children and their parents to dress up, play games and receive free candy.
Most often, believing Christians perceive the holiday as neutral because of its outright joking and pretense. The Roman Catholic Church does not consider the holiday a religious one, but recognizes its connection with Christianity, and therefore allows it to be celebrated in any parochial schools.
At the same time, some Christians criticize and reject the celebration of Halloween, believing that its traditions date back to paganism and some areas of the occult that are contrary to Christian ideals. Some fundamentalist and conservative evangelical churches coincide with the release of pamphlets describing the torment of sinners in hell on Halloween and protest against the holiday, citing the fact that it developed from the pagan day of the dead. Sociologist Jeffrey Victor and cultural scientist Jack Santino argue that in the United States on the eve of Halloween, the number of "sensational" newspaper publications increases and, in general, the "satanic panic" intensifies.
In Eastern Europe, many representatives of the Orthodox Church strongly oppose the celebration of Halloween, believing that it is "a holiday of inner emptiness and a byproduct of globalization." Archbishop Luka of Zaporizhia and Melitopol even appealed to the authorities of Zaporizhia and the region with a demand to stop the spread of the holiday in the region “foreign to the Orthodox people”. Despite the growing popularity of this holiday in Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Council of Muftis of Russia have a negative attitude towards the celebration of Halloween:
The rituals associated with this day teach people from childhood to pay some kind of tribute to evil, to reconcile with it, even to cooperate - instead of fighting evil and resolutely rejecting it, as the Russian Orthodox Church teaches.
- Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin
The same opinion was shared by Mikhail Dudko, a priest from the Assumption Cathedral in London. According to him, Halloween symbolizes the victory over Christ, and, like other aspects of modern pop culture, preaches pathological aggression. The reason for this, he called the errors of the liberalism of the Anglican Church.
neo-paganism
Wiccans identify Halloween with Samhain and celebrate it as the holy day of the year. Among the Wiccans, Samhain and Halloween are considered the same holiday, they call it "sow-en". This approach is based on the cult of the "god Samhain" (or "Sam Aina"), whom Wiccans, following a number of folklorists of the 19th century, considered the Celtic god of Death. At the same time, some Christian fundamentalists considered the word Samhain to be derived from the name of Satan. Both of these points of view are refuted by the modern scientific community, since in fact the word "Samhain" is literally translated from Old Irish as "November", and the same meaning of the word has been preserved in the modern language.
Reenactors of the life of the Celtic peoples make offerings to the gods and their ancestors on this day.
Halloween in popular culture
The seventh episode "Conjunctivitis" of the first season of the animated series "South Park" is dedicated to Halloween. In it, Eric Cartman dons a traditional ghost costume, which is very similar to the Ku Klux Klan hoodie, and Kenny becomes a zombie and causes an epidemic in the city. According to Mike Higgins of The Independent, Hitler's Halloween costume, also worn by Eric Cartman in this episode, cemented Eric's image as a major negative symbol of the 1990s. The Halloween theme was taken up again in Hell on Earth 2006, which became controversial due to the appearance of Stephen Irwin, who had died less than two months earlier.
Of the Halloween episodes, the “Treehouse of Horror” (Russian House of Horrors) is also widely known - episodes of the American animated series The Simpsons, which, coming out during the holiday, were performed in a manner traditional for horror films. Each such episode consists of three mini-stories parodying various urban legends, famous horror films or simply objects of pop culture. It is believed that such episodes are the highest rated in each season, for example, in 1996, the fifth episode of this cycle received the main award of the International Animation Festival in Ottawa.
One of the founders of speed metal and power metal is the German band Helloween. The group's founder, Kai Hansen, chose a similar name for the group in honor of the holiday and made the Jack O'Lantern the band's mascot. The band's name is spelled with an e instead of an a to refer to hell. Trick or Treat is the name of an Italian parody power metal band from Modena whose songs deal with childhood and related themes like tin soldiers and Disney characters.
In the scenery of the holiday, the action of the cult film by director John Carpenter "Halloween", one of the most significant films in the slasher genre, takes place. The story of maniac Michael Myers was later continued, and until 2009, nine more films were shot as part of the franchise. Carpenter's original creative insights had a huge impact on the development of the genre, and also brought Carpenter fame as one of the best directors of horror films. Michael Myers became a cult and well-known character who influenced many subsequent film addicts.