[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 🎃🕸️👻

[Gillian166]

@Laurelle3  I recall in the 70s we did Bonfire Night, or "Guy Fawkes", perhaps once. Given the constant stream of Brit immigrants to Australia starting with the unwilling via Transportation to the willing 5£ Poms well into the 70s, it's no wonder we have a lot of UK traditions. My least fave, that held us back for so long in a culinary sense, was the hot roast dinner at Christmas, and plum pudding, took us forever to phase out that idea! 

[Laurelle3]

@Gillian166 I must be more advanced than you  in the 60's as our family always gathered at Christmas with the extended family about 20 and we always had salads cold chicken and ham. No turkey in those days an occasional goose was added found missing from the flock.

Home made ice-cream made from fresh cream from the Jersey cows, trifle and fresh peaches. but there was always plum pudding with threepences and sixpences.

But yes we are more influenced by the Britain than we think, however our ways are changing with multicultural Australia and I am sure most of these traditions are celebrated here today in Australia.

[Jenny]

Congratulations @Mike-And-Jane0 - that is correct - so I've updated the game to show the answer!

[Huma0]

@Jenny 

8. Día de los muertos - Mexico

[Jenny]

Well done @Huma0 - you're correct! 

[Laurelle3]

@Huma0 I missed your explanation of Dia de Los muertos celebrated in Mexico. So I went looking and found out it represents the "Day of the Dead" for people to reunite the living and dead. People would remember their loved ones by sharing a meal with them as if they were alive. 

[Mauricio467]

Indeed @Laurelle3 , it is one of the most beautiful and comforting Mexican traditions for our hearts.

It is said that on that night we can invite our relatives who have passed away to share an evening with us. We decorate a part of our house with an offering where we put, many flowers (Cempaxuchilt), photos of our grandparents, parents or those whom we dedicate our altar, we also put some food that they liked the most, we even put a glass of tequila, or the drink that our relative liked in life. We sing, dance and share a long-awaited evening throughout the year.
In some towns they do that in cemeteries.

It is a colorful holiday.

[Laurelle3]

@Mauricio467 thank you for sharing your life experience of Dia de Los muertos and how you personally prepare and offer for the evening meal. I have looked up the flower cempaxuchilt and discovered that it is the marigold and it is a native flower of Mexico.

The information said that the colour and fragrance guide the spirit to the alter.

I plant marigolds in my garden when in season and pick the heads when passed and they end up reseeding next year.

As a child my mum had them in her garden and we used to call them "Stinking Rogers" because of their smell. 

[Emiel1]

Nr 5: The Carnival of Saint-Martin is a feast on the island of St. Maarten. It is held in februari / March.

Please note:

The feast "Saint Martin's Day" (Dutch: St Maarten) is hold on 11 november and has a relation with  Halloween (also called "old Halloween") 

Same feast is in some countries (like Belgium) on 10 november.

The feast is not included in the game-list.

More:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin%27s_Day

[Jenny]

Well done @Emiel1 and a bonus for educating me in more detail!  That was an interesting read!

[Barbera0]

Regarding Sint Maarten. as @Emiel stated: Sint Maarten's Day is celebrated on the 11th of November, the name day of the Saint

Young children pass by the houses in their neighborhood with lanterns; they ring the doorbell and when you open the door, they sing a Sint Maarten song and after the song they get rewarded with a treat.

I think this is a tradition mainly in the catholic part of the Netherlands, but in the small town where I grew up - a very protestant town - we also had this tradition, we called it Sonne Marten and I remember very well that we hollowed out a sugar beet and decorated the skin so that the little candle would shine through and that we would also go round the houses in the neighborhood, singing our Sonne Marten song and receiving treats or sometimes even 5 cent coins.

Nowadays the kids have lights with batteries in their paper lanterns, very state of the art!

[Laurelle3]

@Barbera0 thank you for sharing your experience of Sonne Marten when you were a child. I find it interesting to read about different cultures and customs. The ones we remember are the ones that we participated in ourselves.

On looking up the meaning on the internet it has said that Saint Martin was known as a friend of children and the patron of the poor.

[Jenny]

Thanks for sharing, @Barbera0! I'm the same as @Laurelle3 - I love hearing about different customs and cultures!

I was interested to read that you would hollow out a sugar beet and put a candle in it!  For Samhuinn here in Scotland, my parents would help my sister and I hollow out a turnip, carve a face on it and put a candle in.  Dad would then add a string so that we could carry it when we went out "guising".

Guising is kind of like trick-or-treating except the roots of it are that children dressed up like wandering spirits, and would roam the streets, with the costumes designed to allow them to blend in with any malicious spirits and not be detected!  As a child (in the late 80's and early 90's) we'd go door to door much like trick or treaters, but we'd perform a song, a poem, or a joke before being treated to sweets, apples or a couple of pennies!  I think most people just go trick-or-treating now, but I have fond memories of reciting Scottish poetry to our bemused neighbours!

There were also party games as well.  Apple dooking was one of them, where without using their hands, partygoers would have to pick up an apple floating in a container of water!

My favourite though, was treacle scones.  A string would be put up between two poles, and treacle scones (I use this recipe from 1958!) would be dangled from strings, and covered in treacle.  Again, without using hands, partygoers would have to eat their treacle scone... as you can imagine it gets rather messy!

[Laurelle3]

@Emiel1 I find it interesting Saint Martin's (St Maarten) Caraibes(Caribbean) celebrated on the island of St Martin of being discovered by Europeans in the 15th century by Christpher Columbus on the Christian calendar 11th November which celebrates the saint known for cutting his coat in half in order to offerit to a begger suffering from the cold,  Saint Marin of Tours. It also represents the celebration of the unity between the south and North islands.

Christian St Martin is celebrated around the world as @Barbera0 points out in the Catholic part of the Netherlands celebrated Sint Maarten Day. It is even celebrated in Australia Catholic schools today.

@Emiel0 thanks for the suggestion of a read.

[Gillian166]

6. the Celtic/gaelic/scots festival, some might say the OG Halloween. And pronounced ?? "saween" ? 

(I might have learned all this from S1 of Outlander.... :). )