Though the popular holiday is celebrated worldwide, each country, including the US and the UK, celebrates it within its cultural context.
Introduction
The earliest origins of Halloween trace back to the Celtic festival of Samhain, celebrated 2,000 years ago at the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. According to this tradition, on 31st October, the boundary between the living and the dead blurred, and the dead returned to earth. During the Samhain festival, Celts would light bonfires and wear costumes to scare off ghosts roaming in the land of the living.
In the Middle Ages, the tradition of disguising oneself in animal skin costumes and leaving banquet tables of prepared food to appease the dead evolved into dressing as ghosts or demons to perform antics in exchange for food or drink. This custom later transformed into modern-day trick or treating.
With the rise of the Roman Empire and its conquest of Celtic lands, Samhain traditions blended with Christianity. These blended cultures led to the traditions of All Saints’ Day, on 1 November, which honours saints and martyrs; All Souls’ Day, on 2 November, which honours the dead; and All Hallows’ Eve, the night before All Saints’ Day, on 31 October, which we now know as Halloween. By the end of the 20th century, Halloween was a welcomed holiday in the UK, with many traditions influenced by American culture.
Celebrations in the USA
In the 19th Century, many European immigrants, primarily Irish and Scottish immigrants, arrived in the United States. Rather than carving turnips to ward off evil spirits in the Samhain tradition, Americans carved pumpkins. Symbols such as Jack-o’-lanterns, skulls, black cats, and the colours orange, black, and purple quickly became associated. with Halloween. Children trick or treat, dressing up in costumes and asking for candy from their neighbours.
Growing up, one home in the neighbourhood had the most terrifying decorations. It was a feat for me and my friends to make it through the dark, haunted house filled with smoke and people dressed in scary costumes. As a reward for making it through the haunted house, you not only were rewarded with the praise and admiration of your friends – but a King Sized Hershey’s Bar – Halloween currency.
Like many people, I watch Halloween classics, including slashers like Scream, Psycho, and I Know What You Did Last Summer. As a kid, and admittedly even today, I will turn on classic Disney Channel Original Movies like Halloweentown and Twitches or spooky animated movies like Coraline, Frankenweenie, and The Nightmare Before Christmas during the season.
As I’ve grown older, Halloween has not lost its importance. Now, my friends and I will have fun Halloween parties where we dress up as our favourite characters and go to the pumpkin patch, apple picking, or cider tasting.
Celebrations in the UK
Halloween in the UK is a much simpler affair. The holiday is primarily celebrated by children who go trick-or-treating. Since it occurs during students’ half-term, the celebration mainly targets them. Like in the U.S., children are offered sweets when they go trick-or-treating. However, the main difference is that children sometimes receive small amounts of money to purchase their chosen treats.
Decorating is not a huge ordeal, but when people choose to decorate, it’s also primarily for their children. The holiday is a commercial affair, mainly represented through TV programming blocks on the BBC, with hosts participating in activities like visiting pumpkin patches or embarking on a journey through a haunted house. Halloween parties are still an affair to remember for teenagers and young adults, but not at the same scale as in the US.
This is my first time experiencing Halloween in the UK as an American. Honestly, I find the limited commercialisation and over-the-top decorations refreshing. Of course, I miss aspects of the spooky season I’m accustomed to, especially the candy offerings. Still, I’m excited to experience a different cultural interpretation of Halloween and celebrate some of the UK’s unique autumn festivities, like Guy Fawkes Night.
On 5 November, Guy Fawkes Day or Bonfire Night celebrates the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605 of a group of conspirators, Guy Fawkes, who tried to burn down Parliament—those who celebrate light fireworks and bonfires to welcome autumn officially. Guy Fawkes Day is a pushback against tyranny and has a lasting cultural impact with the Guy Fawkes Mak featured in the 1980s graphic novel series V for Vendetta.
Conclusion
As described above, Halloween and its associated autumn celebrations vary across the US and the UK, with similarities from numerous cultures. Clubs and student organisations at Richmond have held events throughout October, particularly film screenings from the Book Club and Black Student Union, who watched Coraline and Get Out, respectively, pumpkin painting and the SGA-sponsored door decorating competition. Although rooted in specific cultural traditions, Halloween and autumn traditions have evolved and will continue to grow based on cultural and temporal contexts.
