Four good reasons to celebrate Halloween!

photo by Brit.

Hi!

Last week was the 31st October… Halloween! I saw some children go for trick-or-treating in my village, and this makes me happy! There are several reasons for celebrating Halloween also in Italy:

- First of all, Halloween is an occasion to meet people and stay together for a night. It is then a way of socializing and making the acquaintance of new people!

- At Halloween, people (especially children) have fun, since they can wear fancy dresses and go for trick-or-treating and eat a lot of sweets!

- People can also express their creativity and their immagination, since they have the chance to create their own fancy dresses (that, in my opinion, is better than buying them already made!), to put on bizarre make up…. And make their own jack-o’-lanterns! Personally, I never made my own carved pumpkin, even if I would like to. Since I was a child, I’ve always made carved oranges and mandarins! It’s very easy to make them and they are so cute and funny! I found this interesting website that explains how to make your own Halloween pumpkin! The website is clear and nice: instructions are accompanied by photos, which show different stages of preparation; in this way you can check your work step-by-step! You can find also many suggestions, alternative methods and useful links. This website will be surely useful next year, when I will try making my first jack-o’-lantern!

- Some people think that celebrating Halloween is a sort of ‘Americanization’, since this holiday is embraced mainly by Americans. I think that this is not true, since Halloween originated in Europe! According to Wikipedia, Halloween “has its origins in the Gaelic festival known as Samhain, […] which was a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture”. This holiday was then influenced by many Roman traditions, when the Romans occupied Celtic territory. Halloween was then imported to North America, when many Scottish and Irish people immigrated there in the 19th century. For these reasons, Halloween is not a new holiday introduced by Americans, but is a part of our European culture!

Happy Halloween!

Veronica