Hey guys!

Notice how the leaves are turning? The light fades faster and faster? Random lyrics form Michael Jackson’s thriller pop into your mind? And slowly but surely, all the houses put up horrific plastic ghouls, skeletons, clown ballons, empty carved pumpkins with light flickering between the eyes? Well that’s cause it’s Halloween! But in other places it’s called different things, such as Hallow’s Even, Hallow’s Evening, Hallowe’en, All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints Eve. 

Unsuprisingly, All Hallow’s Eve was originally a religious ceremony. It began with a three day ceremony called Allhallowtide, which was a day meant to “remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed.” That was a passage from the wiki page I read. This is actual evidence. But some people believe that it comes from the ancient Celtic harvest festival called Samhain, that would indicate that the infamous “spooky time of the year” would be of pagan roots. If this were true, the theory would be that the early church  Christianized (which means converted to their own religion) Samhain into Halloween.

 

In many places, Hallow’s Even is still a religious aspect as opposed to a cultural one. The practice of attending a service and lighting a candle on a loved one’s grave is potentially what some people might be doing this Thursday, whilst others will be doing different activities, such as attending costume parties, trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns, going to haunted houses or watching scary movies. I myself am a practitioner of the latter of the two, the non-religious activities, but everyone is entitled to their beliefs, opinions and practices. This Halloween I’m going as a hotdog, and might be having some friends over.

 

Anyway, that’s all for today. Hope you have a good— or SCARY Halloween everyone. That’s all for today! Bye!