How do you celebrate Halloween?

[Neo Deist]

Alabama, USA...

We carve pumpkins, rake leaves into jack-o bags, and have little ghosts flying through the trees in our front yard. I am the guy that has coffins/tombstones on the lawn, spider webs and spooky music playing for all to hear. My family usually does the neighborhood trick or treating, followed by the rounds at various church led fall festivals, which are like carnivals. At the end of the night, I sort the candy into the kids' pile and the mom/dad pile. After the kids go to bed, I usually watch 2 old school horror flicks like Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween or Friday 13th. Once my wife decides to climb into bed around 1 am, I "scare" her with Willy the one eyed wonder worm.

 

[StarryNightshade]

What country are you from?

I'm from the US.

 

[Flame]

A Nightmare Before Christmas (Daughter's favorite) then a trainwreck of cheesy 80s-90s horror movies.

 

[Aštra’el]

And what is your culture/country?

My home is anywhere touched by the Mojave or Sonoran desert.

We approach the midpoint between the Fall Equinox and the Winter Solstice. This annual period has tremendous spiritual-religious significance to me. A basic understanding of nature and the earth's yearly cycles might give one some insights as to why this time of year is so meaningful for me (as any Sabbat is), but one would not fully understand without experiencing my pantheon and the various evolving symbology, rites, traditions, tables of correspondences, and other culture I've developed and absorbed- and evolved- over the course of my life. I suspect many pagans can relate.

 

[Rehan]

Light a few candles at the local graveyard. Praying and trying to reflect on life a bit, and definitely not light a candle at my maternal great grandmother's grave. She didn't like that kind of stuff. Otherwise I don't really celebrate Halloween much.

Also I technically do this on All Saints Eve (or day) which doesn't occur at the same date as Halloween in Sweden. Why? Complicated historical calendar stuff involving introduction of Protestantism and yadda yadda etc etc

 

[VioletVortex]

I celebrate Halloween by bringing my attention to its meaning, and also by listening to Venom's debut album, Black Metal.

 

[Ana.J]

In Revoltistan (SE MI in USA) I celebrate by hoping that one of these years I'll get invited to a Halloween party.
I've made several costumes
- Lawyer (shark fin on back of suit)
- $100 Bill (me own snoot where Ben was)
- Monty Burns (Exxxcelllllent!)
- Freddie Krueger

I would invite you to my party if I were in US

 

[Brickjectivity]

The shops push it, of course — they have stuff for Halloween, Guy Fawkes' Day, and Christmas at the moment — but my reaction is to reject it as an un-English activity.

All that cheap plastic junk will wind up in the land fills.

 

[Parchment]

Long weekend, fireverks, lots of beer and bonfires, things you can't seemingly have in the cities. Kids still **** me off with their running around unattended and their parents non parenting.

 

[Politesse]

I'm in the US. My only concession to public ritual is the carving of a Jack-O-Lantern in the afternoon to decorate the porch.

Later in the evening, once the sun has gone down. I will be getting together with some friends and celebrating the Samhain ritual. It is believed that the supernatural realm is more accessible at the hinge points of the year, and we take advantage of this to commune with our ancestors and other loved ones who have died. Their names are invoked under the watchful eye of a god or spirit of the dead, and they join our circle for the night. Beyond that, the ritual can take many forms, and I've seen many variations. It is always a joyful time, though it can be a joy mixed with the final stages of grief when someone dear has passed. Still, it is a good and healing thing to feel their magic joining yours for one last time.

Hallowe'en was much the same festival, originally, except that the medieval Christians decided spirits were scary and tried to scare them back, out of the village. Perhaps not the most polite way to treat one's grandparents, but understandable in times of loss, disease, and uncertainty. Those in more liturgical traditions will be familiar with the Feast of All Saints, which is much more like Samhain in form and intent. All Saints was always one of my favorite Lutheran services growing up, but it will not be observed until next Sunday. Historically, the early Christians celebrated the martyrs on Hallowmass, and would indeed traipse out to their tombs and physcially join them in communion, at least according to the Witness of Polycarp, one of the earlier Christian documents. But these days the ritual has been slimmed down to reading the names of the dead during the service, and tolling a bell for their memory.

 

[Perditus]

All that cheap plastic junk will wind up in the land fills.

This is something that has always disgusted me, cheap, stupid, useless stuff marketed to fools who waste their money on things that have no meaning or worth and are a complete waste of finite resources.

This buying a child a toy every 15 minutes is insane. Imagine what could be accomplished if the resources and the money were directed towards worthwhile possessions and necessities.

 

[Monk Of Reason]

I went to Halloween Horror nights at Universal Studios. Ran through haunted houses all night with plenty of astetic