In America, a benign holiday, where adults dress up as various mythical and supernatural creatures, characters from popular media, that sort of thing. They then proceed to get drunk and have sex, presumeably. Children do much the same, only with less debauchery and more sweets. Fear is apparently a part of the festivites, though I fail to see how.
In the rest of the world we mostly look on in bemusement at those goings on, though it has been steadily growing in popularity. Sweets, alcohol and sex. All you need to satiate the common man.
As for the origins. A pagan festival, originalting in the Northern hemisphere, where this time of year corresponded with Autumn -- the post-harvest, pre-Winter change over. Life to death and so on. How a sombre festival like that became this mockery of chocolate and plastic masks, I have no idea, but you see where the general Barge creepiness is starting to tie in?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2011-10-15 09:21 pm (UTC)In the rest of the world we mostly look on in bemusement at those goings on, though it has been steadily growing in popularity. Sweets, alcohol and sex. All you need to satiate the common man.
As for the origins. A pagan festival, originalting in the Northern hemisphere, where this time of year corresponded with Autumn -- the post-harvest, pre-Winter change over. Life to death and so on. How a sombre festival like that became this mockery of chocolate and plastic masks, I have no idea, but you see where the general Barge creepiness is starting to tie in?