Halloween which is traditionally celebrated in all its ghoulish glory on the 31st of October each year is a major festival in the USA and several other countries in the world. This festival which is eagerly anticipated by both children and adults however did not originate in the USA but was transported to the USA by Irish immigrants in the mid nineteenth century when nearly two million Irish immigrants arrived on America’s shores in order to escape the devastating Potato Famines.
Similarly Scottish immigrants carried the festival to Canada and once settled in their new countries these new immigrants continued to celebrate the festival within their communities until it spread far and wide and began to get increasingly commercialized as well. Today the festival enables various types of retailers to take advantage of this burgeoning Halloween spirit to decorate their stores with traditional Halloween symbols and push sales of Halloween costumes, sweets and other decorative accouterments which are used for the celebrations of this ghoulish festival.
History of Halloween as a Gaelic Festival
The celebration of Halloween can be traced to an ancient Celtic Festival known as Samhain which was celebrated at the end of the harvest season in both Ireland and Scotland over the ages. This festival was essentially a fire festival because people believed that on the 31st of October the worlds of the living and the dead merged and the dead souls then wandered onto earth to create havoc for the living in the form of sickness and damaged crops.
To ward off these mischievous spirits bonfires were lit and people used to wear masks and costumes in order frighten these evil spirits away. People also believed that pumpkins could magically morph into monsters and attack their homes so people used to ask for gifts and sweets from their neighbors to feed the pumpkins in order to appease them and ward off these attacks. This lead to the popular Halloween practice called ‘Trick or Treat’ which is thoroughly enjoyed by children. Before kids go on to ‘trick or treat’ they usually dress up in elaborate costumes and then visit the homes of their neighbors in order to perform tricks or beg for sweets.
Halloween symbols
The most popular symbol of Halloween in the USA is a carved pumpkin which is adorned with a burning candle on the inside and is called a ‘jack–o-lantern’. This is another tradition which came to US shores from Europe where turnips and rutabagas were used to create these lanterns as it was believed that the head of the vegetable was a powerful tool to ward off the evil spirits that arose from the graves on this day. Today apart from pumpkins, skeletons, black cats, ghouls, witches, ghosts, owls, and spiders are all used as symbols at Halloween time and are used to adorn homes, businesses and even costumes in parades or trick or treating expeditions. Even Hollywood has jumped on theLet the Right one in Halloween bandwagon and has historically released horror movies around the time of Halloween in keeping with the festival spirit. This year the offerings include movies like The Haunting of Molly Hartley, Let the Right one in and Saw5 .
Halloween Celebrations in various US cities
A few weeks before the holiday many homes all over the US put up various Halloween symbols as decorations in preparation for the holiday. Children look forward to accumulating bags of candy over the holiday as they excitedly plan their costumes. Most homes in the US keep bags of candies on hand in order to give out to young children who revel in their trick or treat expeditions. People usually prefer to give the young ‘monsters’ candy rather than asking them to perform.
Theme parks who usually close their doors after Labor day have now begun to join the Halloween fun and amusement parks like California’s Knotts Berry Farm, the various Six Flags Amusement Parks, The Florida Theme Parks all have various planned events and packages all throughout the month of October as a build up to a big celebration on Halloween day itself. Of course all these events have a ghoulish accent in keeping with Halloween spirit.
Several US cities in various states like Madison in Wisconsin, Atlanta in Georgia, Keene in New Hampshire, Atlanta in Georgia and the self proclaimed Halloween capitals of the world like Anoka in Minnesota and Salem in Massachusetts have elaborate Halloween celebrations which include civic parades which are conducted by the city councils themselves in order to spread the Halloween spirit throughout the community.
The mother of all the Halloween Parades- New York City’s famed Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village.
The biggest celebrations of Halloween are however held in New York City where millions of people line the sidewalks along sixth Avenue from Spring Street to 21st Street to watch the parade of costumed revelers and puppets in a fantastic Halloween parade that starts at around 6pm and continues until 10 pm on every Halloween night. The parade is unlit and relies on street lighting for illumination and since Halloween comes in the Fall when the sun sets early the eerie darkness enhances the ambiance of the parade which is traditionally led by rod puppets some of which are illuminated from within. This parade which usually features fifty thousand elaborately and outlandishly decked revelers, dancers, floats and performers is also televised live on New York City’s local TV channel. This feed is then picked up by television channels all over the world making the event one of the most watched events in the world. Angels,devils,superheros and freaks you get to see them all at this fascinating Village Halloween Parade.
This parade was the brain child of village puppeteer and mask maker Ralph Lee who created a wandering puppet show to entertain the children of friends and family in 1973 when crime and violence had robbed the festival of much of its glory. Through his puppet parade Ralph Lee hoped to create a safe environment for the children of the Village so that they could enjoy Halloween once again. Through this simple premise the parade grew to its current gargantuan size and it is now described as The Greatest Event on Earth by Festivals International. Each year the parade has a central theme which inspires the floats and costumes and this year the theme for the Village Halloween Parade is ‘Ghosts’ and no doubt the parade is going to be sufficiently ghostly. Apart from Greenwich Village several other New York City establishments like the American Museum of Natural History, The Carl Schurz Park and several restaurants and stores have their own celebrations for Halloween.
Though Halloween continues to be celebrated in countries like Ireland, Scotland, England nowhere in the world is it celebrated with as much fanfare as in New York City. So in order to truly experience this lively Halloween spirit why don’t you make a trip to New York City for the holiday and witness for yourself the fantastic Village Halloween Parade which has been listed as one of the 100 things that you must do before you die. While you are there you can avail of some great rates at several New York City hotels like the Bellclaire Hotel and the Bedford Hotel which will greatly add to your enjoyment of Halloween in New York City.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 8:44 pm and is filed under Fun, North America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:12 pm
I’d never had the chance to see that halloween parade in new york, is it held exactly November 1 or mid-night of oct 31?
November 13th, 2008 at 5:23 am
I love Halloween. It is always fun to get dressed up in crazy costumes for one night a year.
November 21st, 2008 at 7:31 am
I’ll exit New York City as soon as Halloween crosses above the festival. Its glory is very interesting and potentially presenting great trading opportunity. Halloween Celebrations just seriously ruined Halloween.
March 25th, 2009 at 3:42 am
Halloween is one of my favorite party holidays how often do you have an excuse to dress up and get crazy
May 17th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
man I so badly want to move to ny. I lived in chicago for 2 years and had a blast, but ny is way better