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Halloween is a well-known holiday that takes place on the night of October 31 to November 1, that is, the eve of All Saints' Day.
Origin
Halloween is a festival originating from the British Isles. The Celts, who are the ancestors of the Irish, held a great celebration at each change of season, and the most important of them took place around the current October 31st: it was the Celtic New Year called "Samhain", which marked the end of the warm season and the beginning of the cold season. On the night of Samhain, the Celts extinguished all the fires and gathered at the top of a hill, where the druids
lit a new sacred fire. During this night, according to the Celts' superstitions, the world of the dead communicated with that of the living. The Celts gave thanks to the gods for good harvests and prayed for their protection during the winter.
Each head of the family received an ember from the sacred fire, to relight the fire in his hearth (a part of a fireplace).
According to legend, the next day, the Celts observed the ashes to know who would die during the year.
Much later, the Irish left for the United States of America during an epidemic and continued to celebrate Samhain there. Americans were inspired by this holiday to create Halloween.
Description
Halloween is a day where children wear costumes, which can range from undead creatures like ghosts or vampires to famous pop culture characters like Darth Vader and Mario. Many houses have haunted-themed decorations, the most iconic of which are jack-o'-lanterns, usually carved from pumpkins.
An event called trick-or-treating occurs from the evening to early night, where kids go around neighborhood areas, typically their own, to get candy candy. The kids ring on other people's doors. When a person in the house opens, the kids say, "Trick or treat!" as a way to ask for candy. There are many people who do not want to participate in the trick-or-treating event on Halloween, especially older people, and they signal this by keeping their lights off. Children, on the other hand, are persistent to go trick-or-treating, even during bad weather like heavy rain.
Halloween around the world
Halloween is celebrated mainly in the Anglosphere, including Ireland, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, and the United States of America.
France
The French began to adopt Halloween toward the end of the 1990s as a result of advertising and commercial campaigns by American brands.
In 1997, France Télécom launched the major "Olaween" operation (an orange-colored mobile phone) with 8,500 pumpkins decorating the Trocadéro in Paris, thereby popularizing the holiday.
In 1998, Halloween was adopted by retailers, taking place just during the "slack period" before Christmas. However, interest in this holiday did not last more than ten years.
Halloween has been criticized in France because it is primarily a huge commercial operation. The true organizers of Halloween are retail stores, which take advantage of the holiday to attract new customers, especially children, and sell candy and other merchandise.
Today, Halloween is no longer an important holiday in France.
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