Ready to get spooked ? Bring out the fangs and broomsticks; carve a pumpkin. Cos it’s Halloween in Pondicherry.
UPDATE: Find Halloween 2021 parties here
Halloween is celebrated on the last day of October. The festival has its roots in Celtic tradition. The forerunner of Halloween was the festival of Samhain which included costumes and bonfires to ward off ghosts.
Why you ask? Well according to the historychannel.com, Samhain was celebrated on October 31, the last day before the beginning of the dark, cold winter. It was believed ghosts returned to death before this period of transition into winter as the boundary between this world and the next world became especially thin at this time.
Centuries later, the Catholic Church designated November 2 as All Souls Day- a day to remember the dead- and November 1 as All Saints Day where children donned costumes as saints and martyrs. The evening before it -October 31 was called All Hallows Eve and later shortened to Halloween.
Today, activities like trick-or-treat, jack-o-lanterns and costume parties have come to symbolise Halloween.
Halloween in Pondicherry
Pondicherry has been warming up to the concept of Halloween for the last few years. This year the parties seem to have taken it a notch up and there are several cosplay competitions in town.
So HAPPY HAUNTING!
PHOTO: HALLOWEEN AT STORYTELLERS BAR
