Halloween is an event very much looked forward to by children worldwide.
In Western countries, children don their favorite costumes and go around the neighborhood to play “tricks or treats.’’ In other countries, including the Philippines the event ushers in the days of “all saints’’ and “all souls’’ when Christians clean the tombs of their dead and thereafter light candles and offer flowers and prayers.
Halloween is said to have originated in the ancient Celtic festival Samhain – the feast of the Lord of the Dead. Ancient belief had it that the world of the living and the dead merged on Halloween day, when the spirits of dead ancestors were believed to return to earth on the evening of October 31. Priests of olden times claimed to communicate with the dead for prophesies that helped the Celtic community survive through the long, severe winter.
The festival of Samhain was celebrated by lighting bonfires and sacrificing crops and animals to Celtic deities, as people disguised themselves as animals using animal heads and skins. People dressed up in ghoulish and scary costumes to ward off spirits of the dead from possessing their bodies.
The celebration of Halloween has gained popularity in the Philippines. Malls, schools, and even some homes, are decorated with spooky white webs, skulls and skeletons, jack-o-lanterns, and other Halloween stuff. Halloween parties are held where participants don costumes of fairy tale and horror characters. Villages and close-knit communities organize their children for a “trick or treat’’ fair.
Some popular television shows feature guests who claim they can see, hear, and communicate with the dead. In some countries, they have bonfires, visit ghostly attractions such as the castle of Dracula, and watch “witch trials’’ during a tour to Transylvania.
In celebrating Halloween this year, let us be safe, sensible, and austere. Let us also keep in mind the two important events it ushers in – All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day – when we are urged to remember and pay respect to our dead.
Happy Halloween to all!
0 comments:
Post a Comment