[GAME] Halloween traditions around the world!

[Jenny]

Hello everyone!

October has rushed by and my favourite time of the year, Halloween, is almost upon us!

Like the (very scary) film says… “I want to play a game”.  

The rules are very simple:

I’m going to share Halloween-adjacent traditions from around the world, and you can tell me where they originate from.

Here we go!

1. Dracula's Day 
2. Ognissanti - Italy
3. Teng Chieh 
4. Barriletes gigantes (or the festival of giant kites) - Guatemala
5. The Carnival of Saint-Martin (Sint-Maarten) - St Maarten / Belgium
6. Samhuinn - Ireland / Scotland
7. Fet Gede 
8. Día de los muertos - Mexico
9. Dia das Bruxas
10. Guy Fawkes Day - United Kingdom / Australia
11. Pangangaluluwa 
12. Kawasaki Halloween Parade
13. Dzień Zaduszny
14. Pitru Paksha
15. Awuru Odo Festival
16. Gai Jatra
17. Pchum Ben
18. Kukeri
19. Totensonntag - Germany / Switzerland
20. Jum il-Mejtin 
21. Chuseok

I hope you enjoy playing!

Take care,

Jenny 🎃🕸️👻

[Clara116]

@Jenny well, I was excited about a new game....and then i looked....I'm totally ignorant about this one.....I just felt like I did before I learned German when I was in Germany,  DUH, ignorant and oh well.  I'm sure others are well informed and knowledgeable but all this, wish I was, so I'll watch like a good spectator. Have fun

[Jenny]

Awwwww @Clara116, I'm so sorry!

Just so you know, I didn't know most of these before either, so I did have to do a little bit of online research 😊

[Clara116]

@Jenny it's fine....I just have lots too do and Halloween is not a big event or deal in my life and world...I don't have children and I suppose that makes a difference. 

It's ok....I watch all the creativeness of others each year.

[Emilie]

@Clara116 I'm not well versed into the traditions surrounding this time of the year either but I do love learning more about them! 

@Emiel1 @Mike-And-Jane0 @Helen3 @Huma0 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Till-and-Jutta0 @Ralf5 @Barbera0 @Mauricio467 @Michael-O-Reilly0 I wonder if you recognise any? Would love to hear any stories anyone has around celebrating these holidays worldwide. ☺️

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jenn8 Number 10 Guy Fawkes Day celebrated in the UK on November the fifth with fireworks and a bonfire with a Guy on top.

Can't remember the date but basically Guy and his pals tried to blow up parliament and were rather nastily executed when their plot was discovered. 

[Huma0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

The 'Gunpowder Plot' was in 1605, during the reign of King James I of England, who was also King James VI of Scotland.

It was an attempt, by a group of catholics, to blow up Parliament, including the King and his heirs, because James had recinded on his promises to protect catholics from further persecution, or at least, that is how they felt, and probably with good reason. Still, it was a rather radical attempt at a major terrorist attack and they very nearly got away with it. 

Guy (or actually Guido) Fawkes was not actually the leader of the pack. The plot was instigated by young noble men and Guido was recruited because he was someone who knew how to deal with explosives. Hence why he was the one found in the vaults below parliament with a shed load of explosives, ready to light the fuse. 

He became famous as a result and we still call it Guy Fawkes Night. I wonder how many Brits know the names of the other plotters, even the ones who instigated and were in charge of the whole thing?

[Gillian166]

@Huma0  given how we now can see how geopolitics is often misrepresented by the media, or the truth of events comes out years later (eg, JFK, WOMD) I'm kinda feeling like perhaps they weren't "terrorists" after all - although blowing up historic buildings is a crime against humanity, for sure! A lot of activists around the world use the guy fawkes mask as one of their icons. 

Something I also just learned (despite studying the play myself in high school in the 80s) via my Grade 12 daughter who has studied Macbeth all year and just done her final English exam on it - Shakespeare wrote this play to curry favour with King James and warn people that killing your king is a bad idea. 

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

Well, it depends how you define 'terrorism'. Catholics were heavily persecuted here for centuries (as in many other European countries, hence why many fled to the Americas). So, did these blokes have just cause to retaliate? Probably. Maybe the King and many of the parliamentarians (all Lords back in those those days) deserved some comeuppance. Perhaps more peaceful tactics hadn't worked...

However, it's not about blowing up historic buildings (our current Houses of Parliament, despite looking medieval, are actually Victorian and were built centuries after this event). It's about blowing up people, many of whom would have been totally innocent, and some even children. That's when it starts to wander into the territory of terrorism, to my mind, but I wasn't there, I wasn't them, so I withhold judgement. Desperate times often result in desperate tactics.

It's certainly a fascinating moment in British history (hence why it's still commemorated today), but strangely, not that many Brits actually know the story behind it. Until recently (and maybe this still happens), we would burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes on the bonfire at public firework displays. Even as a child, not knowing what this was all about, I found this odd.

Of course, we are many years past the persecution of the catholics, and yet we still celebrate this event (or rather the non-event) with such glee! The plotters were tortured and executed in very gruesome ways. Not sure why, in the 21st Century, we are still having a party about it, but I guess a lot of national traditions come from odd origins...

[Gillian166]

@Huma0  burning an effigy of Guy Fawkes is reminiscent of the 2mins of Hate from 1984. That's quite chilling if you think about it objectively, teaching people (and children) to be gleeful about hate. Even in Australia my parents talked about 'celebrating" Guy Fawkes day or something, i think it died out in the 70s here. 

[Huma0]

@Gillian166 

I am not sure when it stopped here (I assume it has actually stopped, but I haven't been to a big, pubic fireworks display in a while). However, it was definitely still very common when I was growing up so into the 90s at least, I would guess. I can't think of another tradition here that involved burning effigies or anything similar to that.

So it's very, very odd but I am guessing that the vast majority had no idea what it even meant. It was just an old tradition. 

You used to see kids outside shops with an effigy that they had made. They would say, "penny for the Guy" and people would give them loose change. Those effigies would end up on the bonfire on 5th November. This was certainly still normal in the 80s and even 90s, but I bet you very few kids even knew who 'Guy' was or, if they did, it was a totally inaccurate idea of who he was.

We probably have lots of other odd traditions that people follow without knowing the meaning, but to me, that was always the strangest one here. I mean, I wonder how catholics here felt about it, all those centuries later?

[Laurelle3]

@Mike-And-Jane0 as a child in the 60's we celebated Guy Fawkes night on the 5th November when we were on athe farm. We collected wood bits and pieces of rubbish to have a bonfire often the neighbours kids would bring along pieces to build it up and trying to make it taller than last year. Someone would make a scarecrow figure to go on the top for the burning. We really didn't take in the real meaning of the ritual of burning of Guy Fawkes. 

The government of the day put a ban on these bonfires in November because of possible starting of bushfires.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jenny it appears we may need to add Australia to the UK as people who celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. I guess @Laurelle3 will let us know if this was a 60s only thing since their government banned bonfires.

[Laurelle3]

@Mike-And-Jane0  and @Jenny Guy Fawkes had been celebrated with my parents and their families probably the generation before as well. 

I think we could say that it came across to Australia with the first fleet of convicts in 1788 brought by Great Britain.

[Jenny]

I've popped it in as a bonus answer @Laurelle3 and @Mike-And-Jane0 - even if it's in a more historic sense!