Monday, November 1, 2010

Halloween – Day of the dead

Really, what’s the deal with this day? Halloween – the name sounds weird; everyone dresses up to scare others; the night seems eerie; and candies flying across all neighborhoods with a bizarre saying, “Trick or Treat”??? Odd combination, isn’t it? So, I decided to write an article on it and got started with a bit of R&D.

Now, please don’t assume that I’m writing an essay on Halloween. Essay is the last thing I’ll be writing as it is highly boring and irritating. Oh well, so the whole festival started out long back. Around 15 or 1600’s; I don’t think there’s a specific year mentioned anywhere in Google search results for Halloween [Lol, there, I cited my research as well]. Primarily only four countries observed the day: Ireland, Scotland, Canada and United States. However, from the past couple of years several other countries have started to enjoy this day as well. India too, has started to fancy this day. As if we had shortage of festivals??? Oh well, more the merrier! Anyhow, the roots of this day are connected to Celtic festival. Which, by the way means a religious belief adhered by the Iron Age people of Western Europe. So, the Celts believed that Halloween was the day when our world and the ‘Otherworld’ became thin and allowed spirits and ghosts to enter… And then to ridicule the incoming of such people or objects, [whatever you may call them] Iron Age people decided to mock them by dressing up as one of them. The whole purpose was to disguise oneself as a harmful spirit and thus avoid them. By tradition, one may only wear a costume of ghost or witches, however, as the technology is advancing in the world, so are the festivals. People started to dress up as anyone and everyone. The custom is to dress up and walk around the neighborhood houses asking for candies. The famous saying is ‘Trick or Treat’? The word trick refers to a “threat” to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. Oh and by the way, there are rotten teenagers who throw eggs at your home if you don’t supply them with some candies. So, beware guys!!!

It’s really a treat for your eyes as homeowners to watch small kiddos dressed up as their favorite movie/cartoon character. Speaking of which, I had a very cute and adorable kid [might have been 3 or 4] on my door asking for candy. He dressed up as Spiderman and definitely looked handsome and a complete darling! Wanted to kiss him but as you know these gora’s act berserk if you touch their kids, let alone kissing! Nevertheless, I fancied all the kids who trick or treated at my door last night. Happy Halloween, mate!

4 comments:

  1. Ok..now i know . Thanks dear

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  2. nice post.. I liked the sentence where u said that we Indians already have so many festivals and we have added one more to it.. haahha.. Hey u know.. After Chetan Bhagat, Amitabh Bachchan also read and complimented my blog.. Do read the post.

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