Halloween festival

Halloween has the original name All Hallows'Eve, meaning the night before the feast of the saints. " Hallow " is an old English word meaning " holy ". The name of the holiday is then cut into Hallowe'en and finally Halloween as we know it today.

Today's Halloween festival most people regard it as a fun festival with the apples of Pomona festival, the black cat of Sanhaim festival and ghosts, skeletons of holy holidays and souls. , All Saint's Day and All Soul's Day.

Stories about lights with pumpkins

Jack-o-lantern, a pumpkin - shaped lamp engraved with a human face, originates from an 18th-century Irish folk legend. Jack is an Irishman. He tricked the demon to climb an apple tree. After that, he cut a cross-shaped symbol into the tree trunk, then confined the demon with branches. By the time this guy died, he could not go to heaven because of this sin. The demon has an enemy position that doesn't allow him to go to hell. So he was forced to be a wandering soul forever on Earth. The demon showed a bit of pity that gave him a piece of charcoal to light up on the roads. Jack put that coal in a radish. This is the origin of customary people put candles in pumpkins on today's Halloween holiday.

Jack-o-lantern, a pumpkin-shaped lamp with a face carved.

Each region has different Halloween culture:

Halloween in Mexico

Unlike other festivals in other countries, Mexican Halloween is more of a tribute to dead relatives than chasing away wandering souls. In the autumn, countless monarchs flock to Miheco to nest on fir trees. Belief in the Aztecs (an Indian tribe living in Central America around the 14th and 15th centuries) is still alive in the minds of contemporary Mexicans. They believe that butterflies are the embodiment of the souls of the dead. These are the souls that the Mexicans cherish during the " Los Dias de los Muertos " days of the deceased.

During the Halloween holiday, the Mexicans enjoyed the fun. It is the stage to remember about dead friends and relatives. The days of the saints and the days of the souls here are from October 31 to February 2, 1. All the altars in the family are decorated with bread, candles, flowers and fruits. The candles are lit up in nostalgia for the deceased ancestors. People dressed in devilish clothes, corpses and human bones. They marched with a living person placed in a coffin on the streets. Flowers, fruits and candles are thrown into the coffin. Families come to the cemetery and use burial and decorating tools. They stayed there all night.

In general, Los Dias de los Muertos-Halloween festival in Mexico has many similarities with the Vu Lan Ceremony (Penalty for death) in the lunar calendar of the seventh lunar month in Vietnam. At this festival people remember their loved ones and do not chase away wandering souls like most Halloween festivals in other countries.

North American Halloween Festival

Halloween entered the United States thanks to Irish and Scottish immigrants and became a major folk festival day in the US and Cananda. On this holiday children often play trick and treat , they come to each house collecting candles, apples and more. They are the most cheerful people in this festival.

Halloween in European countries

In addition to the religious meanings such as festivals of many places in the world, but in each European country Halloween festival has its own unique characteristics due to the history and culture of each country.

In the UK, the focal point of the annual Halloween festival is the burning ceremony. At the festival people always see the burning flames in the streets of England. But unlike Halloween in other parts of the world, these fires are not meant to drive away evil spirits and wandering souls, but to mention the story of Guy Fawkes, who intends to blow up the Convent Building. in London on 1605 according to the church's calendar. He suffered a catastrophic death. It is believed that the Pope at that time used revolutions to convert Christianity in England. Many Guy Fawkes' effigies were burned.

In Germany, people celebrate Halloween with great pleasure and joy. Halloween in Germany in addition to every house pumpkin lamp, the make-up festival is the activity that attracts the most people. Everyone with the costumes of traditional characters, witches dancing, singing around the great bonfires happily day and night.

(Photos are collected from many websites on the Internet)