Halloween Traditions

The most famous activity of Halloween is "Trick-or-treat". Children dress up in scary costumes and go door to door, ringing their neighbors' doorbells and yelling "Trick or Treat!" and the host family (who may also be wearing a scary costume) sends out candy, chocolates, or small gifts. Some families even use sound effects and smoke machines to create a scary atmosphere. Of course, most families are more than happy to entertain these innocent children, who often carry home bags of candy from one night to the next.

In Scotland, children ask for candy by saying, "The sky is blue, the grass is green, may we have our Halloween." (The sky is blue, the grass is green, let's celebrate Halloween night together.) Then they sing and dance and perform to get candy. singing and dancing and other performances to get candy.

The origins of trick-or-treating are generally explained in two ways, one being that Irish pagans in ancient Western Europe believed that on Halloween night ghosts would gather near homes and be treated to a feast. Therefore, after the "feast", the villagers dressed up as ghosts and spirits and wandered outside the village, guiding the ghosts away to avoid evil spirits and disasters. At the same time, the villagers also paid attention to the arrangement of some fruits and other foodstuffs in front of and behind their houses, so as to feed the ghosts and spirits without letting them harm human beings and animals or plunder other harvests. This custom has since been perpetuated and has become a joke for children to make fun of ungenerous houses.

Another theory is that it began in the Christian churches of Europe in the ninth century AD. At that time, Nov. 2 was known to Christians as "ALL SOULS DAY." On this day, believers traveled from village to village in the backwoods of the countryside begging for "soul cakes" made of flour and raisins. It is said that those who donate the cakes believe in the prayers of the church monks and expect to receive God's blessing for their deceased loved ones to enter heaven as soon as possible. This tradition of begging from house to house has evolved into a game in which children carrying pumpkin lanterns go from house to house begging for candy. When they meet, the children, dressed as ghosts and goblins, always threaten to "trick or treat," and the hosts, naturally, do not dare to be slow and say, "Please eat! Please eat!" At the same time, they put the candies into the big pockets that the children carry with them.

Traditional Halloween costumes include zombies, ghosts, witches and demons, with the most typical costume being a ghost covered in a cloth with two eye holes cut out. In Scotland and Ireland in the 19th century, people at that time believed that ghosts would come to earth on the night before Halloween, so they would dress up as the same as the ghosts, so that the ghosts would take themselves as their own kind. In recent years, Halloween costumes are no longer limited to horror, but can be dressed up as anything, such as TV or movie stars, and politicians, etc. In 2004, coinciding with the U.S. presidential election, George W. Bush and John F. Kerry became popular Halloween costumes in the United States. And after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, firefighters and police officers became popular for children to play as. It is estimated that some 2.15 million American children dressed up as Spider-Man in 2004, the most popular costume of the year.

UNICEF's Trick-or-Treat program is widespread in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Launched in 1950, the program involves collecting donations in small money boxes that are distributed to children through their schools so that they can collect donations while begging for candy. It is estimated that more than $119 million has been raised since its introduction.

Two, pumpkin lanterns

Halloween this day, many families are in the front door on the steps of the jack-o'-lantern (also known as pumpkin lanterns), in the "trick-or-treating" children in fancy dress, masks at the same time, the hand will also hold a jack-o'-lantern. Because the jack-o-lanterns are not scary looking, but rather very funny and cute, and because of the pumpkin's massive size, people can see them from a long way off.

In the ancient Irish tale, it is said that a drunkard named Jack (Jack) was very fond of mischief. One day Jack tricked a demon into coming up a tree, and then proceeded to carve a cross into the stump to terrorize the demon into daring him to come down, and then Jack made a pact with the demon to get the demon to promise to cast a spell that would let Jack come down the tree on the condition that he would never commit a crime. When Jack died, his soul could neither go to heaven nor hell, so his spirit had to be guided between heaven and earth by the light of a small candle.

In the legend, this small candle is placed in a hollowed out turnip, called "Jack Lanterns", and the old turnip lamps evolved to today, is a pumpkin made Jack-O'-Lantern. It is said that the Irish came to the United States soon, that is to say, found that the pumpkin from the source and carving are better than turnips, so the pumpkin has become a symbol of Halloween.

Three, bite the apple

The most popular game on Halloween night is "Biting for Apples" (Bobbing for Apples). During the game, people let the apples float in a basin filled with water, and then let the participants use their mouths to bite the apples without using their hands, and whoever bites it first is the winner.

Four, other

In Ireland, there is a traditional divination game, participants blindfolded, from the table with a few small plates to choose one of them, such as touching the plate containing soil, on behalf of the coming year there will be a participant in connection with the person over the body, such as water on behalf of the will be far away, full of money on behalf of the will be rich, full of beans on behalf of the will be poor, and so on. In 19th century Ireland, young girls would put slugs on a dish sprinkled with flour, and the slugs' crawling marks would be the likeness of the girl's future husband.

In North America, legend has it that if an unmarried woman sits in a darkened room on All Saints' Eve, she will be able to see her future husband's face in a mirror. However, if they were to die before the wedding, a skull would appear in the mirror. The custom has been popular since the late 1800s and greeting cards are sold.

In some remote counties in the north of England, there is a saying that on Halloween night, girls tuck an apple under their pillow before going to bed, make a wish for love, and secretly pray that the first man who sends them flowers next will be the one they are destined to meet.

"Because of the presence of many ghosts, the aura is very strong, and many things will come true" - this saying has continued to this day, and there are still many girls in the town will try this. If there really is such a person of one's choice standing in front of one's face with a bouquet of flowers the next day, this young man is the lucky one. In fact, it is not difficult to be a lucky man, the lads know this ancient saying, they will act unknowingly.