It’s halloween night…

Today is halloween day. It is a western culture.
What is Halloween? Ever wonder what is that?
The halloween story originates back to the ancient time of Samhain and was celebrated as the New Year’s eve of the Celts.

The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area which is now called Ireland,United Kingdom,and northern France, celebrated their new year on 1st November. This day marked the end of summer and the beginning of cold winter.

On the new year’s eve, Celts believed that the dead or disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed to be the spirits only hope for the afterlife. On this day, they believed that the boundary between the world of the living and the dead became blurred.

Those who were alive didn’t want to be possessed by these lost souls, so what happen was on the night of 31st October, the villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes and then dress up in ghoulish costumes and parade around the neighborhood making as much noise as possible to frighten away those spirits which were looking for a live body to possess. When the celebration was over, they would re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.
Coincidentally, the Chinese also has similar belief to this Halloween festival. The festival is called the ‘Hungry Ghost festival’ which falls on the 7th month of the lunar calendar. Chinese believes that the gates of the hell are opened to free the hungry ghosts who can then wander to Earth to seek food.