Harlow what? Halloween. Harlow Win?

Everybody knows what Halloween is. Pumpkin and ghosts and ghouls lor…..

I also know. But I don’t know when exactly it is celebrated. And I don’t know why some of the bereaved mothers from overseas whom I know online do not like Halloween. Some muttered something about against their faiths etc.

Being the meek one, I never ask why. But have no fear, there is always Wikipedia and Google. This is what I copy and paste from Wik. (in italics are my thoughts):

1) Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31,

(oh, I see..31 Oct)

2) Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.

(trust the Americans to commercialise everything to make money and droves of sheeps to follow blindly)

3) “All Hallow’s Eve,” so called as it is the day before the Catholic All Saints holy day, which used to be called “All Hallows,”

(All Saints day I know la. It is an obligatory day where all Catholics must celebrate mass on November 1st. And the next day, November 2nd is All Souls Day aka Christians Ching Ming)

4) Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the pookah, a mischievous spirit.

(hor…like that. So now onwards, I can say pooky, pooky, pooky whenever my kids are mischievous). I only speak Irish mah.

5) the pagan Celts celebrated the Day of the Dead on Halloween. The spirits supposedly rose from the dead and, in order to attract them, food was left on the doors. To scare off the evil spirits, the Celts wore masks

(Fuwah, the angmoh Hungry Ghost festival)

6) Halloween is sometimes associated with the occult. Many European cultural traditions hold that Halloween is one of the “liminal” times of the year when the spirit world can make contact with the natural world and when magic is most potent

(Now I know why some muttered it is not part of our faiths la. There are some pagan substances there, isn’t it?)

This is another informative blog brought to you by 5xmom. *sigh* I have plenty of thoughts on the bird flu, earthquake, operations on kids without GA (in Pakistan), dengue, giant cheques (involving Christians, vulgar!) , orphans, abandoned babies, untimely deaths, Tsunami survivor dad who lost 5 kids, etc but heck, I refused to think too deep. Depressing only.

Happy Pooky Night!