From the PTASC 30.10.2021

Halloween – An International Celebration

Thought to have originated among the Celts of ancient Britain and Ireland, Halloween has been adopted by many cultures and countries around the world and in the process, tweaked to fit the local flavour.

Traditionally, it was a celebration dedicated to mark the end of summer and harvest as well as the end of the year, as the Celts celebrated their New Year on November 1^st. They also believed that  during the night of October 31^st, the boundary between the world’s of the living and the dead became blurred and on this night, the ghosts of the dead would return to earth.

If you google halloween, you can be sure to find some fun, surprising and unique ways of how people of today celebrate Halloween around the world, some in less spooky ways but the general theme does appear to be a celebration of deceased family members.

In Austria it is suitably celebrated with a pumpkin festival called “Kürbisfest im Retzerland” and in China, families lay out photographs of deceased family members alongside food and drink, as an offering.

In Italy they bake and eat cookies made of almonds (originally flava beans) and in Japan they celebrate a Buddhist tradition called O-bon and hang out lanterns and perform traditional dances to honour the spirits.

In Germany they put away their kitchen knives on Halloween night to ensure that spirits don’t get harmed on their return to Earth!

If you are familiar with the story of Frankenstein, you may not be surprised to hear that the Czechs have a spooky tradition with vampires. Back in the early 1990’s a graveyard was discovered in the North of Praque, which archeologists believe was used exclusively for the remains of vampires! Feeling inspired? Well, apparently you can still visit it today.

On that note, I shall leave you with a less spooky yet Halloween inspired joke; “What does a panda eat? BamBOO!”

Wishing you all a frightfully fun Halloween.

Helle Enderby
PTASC