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Halloween Custom

The Halloween custom in America was established by the Christian community, which was known as the Protestants in those times. U.S Christian community wanted to keep in custom with their fellow Christians in Europe where the Celtic speaking community was the majority. The American custom was created by the immigrant Catholics and protestants in the New England and Maryland as a ceremony marking the Christian belief and celebration that goes along side the Christmas. However, all people of racial and religious background then later celebrated it with the artifacts and symbols included( Bannatyne, 29)Halloween has been a traditional holiday that normally is celebrated and liked by Americans in the night of October 31. The custom, started as Celtic festival, has been recognized as a holiday in US and parts of Europe. The word has been translated to mean All Hallows’ Evening. As far as culture and customs is good in a society, such customs as Halloween should be left. Halloween should be abandoned due to security issues, psychological problems and its contradictory origin.

The custom is normally celebrated in order to remember those who died long time ago and they include the spirits, martyrs and the rest of the humanity have died. During the festival of marking Halloween, people from far and wide gather in particular open places and perform activities such as trick-or-threatening, lighting bone fires carving, decorating, playing pranks, telling stories that are scary, watching horror movies and telling of stories that scares (Clark, Cindy Dell,98).

Despite the fact that Halloween did not originated in America, many Americans have ended up celebrating the ceremony. The ceremony is not yet declared as a public holiday in the unite states but many people normally celebrate it with their businesses open and running. However, Americans have changed the ceremony through introduction of horror and satanic costumes making it popular.

In normal situations, Halloween custom should be taken as an outdated custom. This is because in the current world, beliefs that are attached to spirit world are not necessary. The times have changed and that, people should adapt to modern ways of life and lifestyle. It is very irrelevant for people to still go by the rituals and customs that were common with people who lived in the 12 century (Kroma, Dawn, 34).

Looking at such a Halloween photo, it does not carry any message at all or any education that children can learn from. In ancient times, the Celtics used the festivals to remind themselves of their culture and party that was to bring together all people that belonged to that community. “A 17-year-old boy who shot his sister and mother said that watching horror movie Halloween gave him the idea because he was 'amazed at how at ease the boy was during the murders and how little remorse he had”. Therefore, it has not have purpose in the current American lifestyle because most people do not keep or do not know their culture and traditions.

Exposing children to such circumstances of wearing scary costumes and going for trick-or treaters in the neibhours house is not only bad for their growth but also exposing them to bad practices. Just imagining if the children adopt such a lifestyle according to the oracles they see in movies? Will they not get involved in such things in their teenage lives? Therefore, considering such events of Halloween, it is a high time that the modern US society should do without it.

Halloween in the current society should have no place. The country has been trying hard to maintain security for all citizens in the US. Cases such as trick or treaters might become avenues for terrorists in the country. Apart from terrorism Halloween can form part of criminal activities because parents can use their children to beg in the streets and shops, which could affect the economy of a place. Therefore future robbers and economic criminals would most like emerge from the Halloween custom. This is because children are not taught and they do not understand the real meaning of Halloween. Thus, the custom should not only be abandoned but also should be banned. Actually it is a way of distortion in a lawful way (Belk, 71).

The ironical thing about this Halloween holiday is that, according to traditions of christinity,theft and fraud are considered as a sin while tricks used during this holidays are not considered sins. Therefore, the holiday should not be honored at all and should be done away with.

Halloween custom in the United States is believed to have been practiced by 1900 although its commercialization started in 1930 and 1950 when trick-or-treat was founded. However, the custom that was started by the Celtic community was practiced as early as 12th century. The ceremony is usually decorated with symbols and that look like ghosts . the walking skeletons normally sure used by this people to represent the relationship that normally exist between people who have died and lived in the spiritual world with that of people who are on earth.

Witches and wizards also are used to represent people in the Halloween ceremony. These people have the power to talk with spirits in the other world. Other symbols that have been used in this custom to connect with the holiday are black bats, black cats and spiders. They have been used by this custom to refer to the dark side of the world including the wizards and the witches. Therefore looking at the origin of Halloween custom and what the US representatives practice are very different. The inclusion of such scary costumes such as supernatural skeletons makes the whole event more of satanic than celebration. This custom should be abandoned or either modified in order to fit to current world.

Moreover, Halloween could be a painful memories from many people who have had lost people they really love and care about. For these people every year they think about the loved friends or family member who passed away. That will make their life even more harder and always think about the past. People always should continue living a good live without painful memoirs destroy their future.

The original meaning of this custom from the Celtic community is different from the American Halloween. The Halloween that was practiced in parts of Scotland and northern Ireland in Europe was more of a cultural event that had traditional element and believes of Celtic speaking community,. The American Halloween is very different. People do not know their Christian traditions and the practices that are witnessed during the celebration of this tradition do not reflect the meaning of the original custom in anyway. It has been made to look like any other game. The practices that U.S has tied to this custom have no lesson in which one can derive it from. Therefore, it is meaningless for US to still be tied to a custom that has no spiritual meaning or life lesson to its participants (Bannatyne, Lesley, Pg52).

Since the custom has been in place for so long, majority of the children born have been celebrating the custom for quite some time. Therefore, the element that is attached to this custom where children mingle in a night and among the homesteads in the neighborhood has increased socialization in US. American people normally have little time for outings wither families and such customs have been use very good to allow people visit the neighborhood and interact. However, it became always at night and many people suffered from how scary and tariffing it was

To sum up, Halloween became nightmares for many children and adults. Also many please are not secure from the people who wear customs to cover their faces from any kind of crime. Psychological problems happened in Halloween as well. Contradictory origin, which many people, doesn’t like the way others do it. Why we celebrate the people who died? Which is better if stop thing about the people who died, so that people who have had lost their loved friend or family can live without painful memories every years. I think we should do the apposite; we celebrate the people who are still alive every year.

Clark, Cindy Dell. "Tricks of festival: children, enculturation, and American Halloween." Ethos 33.2 (2005): 180-205.

Kroma, Dawn, and Lou Kroma. "Beistle: An American Halloween Giant." Spookshows. com. http://www. spookshows. com/beistle/beistle. htm. Retrieved (2006): 09-14.

Belk, Russell W. "Halloween: An evolving American consumption ritual." Advances in consumer research 17.1 (1990): 508-517.

Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt. Halloween: an american holiday, an american history. Pelican Publishing, 1998.

Bannatyne, Lesley. "Halloween: An American Holiday." An American History (1990): 4.

STEBNER, BETH M. "US Teen Tells How He Killed His Mother and Sister after Halloween Movie Inspired Him to Murder His Family." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 25 Jan. 2013. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.