Halloween, a western festival has become popular in India for the last couple of years. While we all know why the day is celebrated, there are many small and big elements attached to the festival. For instance, pumpkins and bats.
There are many theories of why bats are associated with Halloween. First, bats being perceived as spooky - partly due to their characteristics - being nocturnal and the way they hang upside down.
According to one of the most popular theories in 2000 when Great Britain and Ireland were occupied by a group of people commonly referred to as The Celts celebrated a festival called Samhain on October 31. During this festival, the Celts believed that the division between this world and the otherworld was at its thinnest, and this could allow spirits to cross into our world.
To celebrate the festival, there would be huge bonfires, food and costumes. The costumes were believed to help ward off the fairies and spirits. And bonfires, on the other hand, would attract vast numbers of flying insects. Bats would get attracted to those flying insects and hunt them. This made the Celts believe that the bats were spirits up to mischief.
When did the current trend of costumes start?
Around the end of the 1800s, people started hosting Halloween parties, which included games, costumes, and witchcraft. The concept of 'trick-or-treat' developed in the 1950s when people in America started celebrated Halloween every year.
Additionally, $9.1 billion is spent on Halloween annually by the 179 million Americans who participate in the holiday.
