Halloween

by Elysia Wong Mun Mun, Junior 1 Cempaka, Class of 2017

’Tis the month of October,

When little ones fear the monsters beneath their beds,

The trick or treats, within the knocks on every mahogany door,

When the last light of the 30th goes out,

The creeping souls appear:

surrounding all about.

Source : www.wholelifechallenge.com

Aren’t we all excited for Halloween? It's a great season and a holiday that we should really learn to celebrate. In other countries (predominantly in Europe and America), Halloween is one the most jubilant yet fearful holidays. It’s that time of the year again, when the dozens of young-hearted people dress up with costumes to obtain the only vital thing on a Halloween night - candy. There’s the possibility to get free candy if you put on a red hood. Just a red hood. Boom, you become red riding hood, and you have candy. If only it was that simple in real life. Oh well.

Halloween dates back as far as to 2000 years ago, along with the Celts, a culture born in the pre-Roman era. The Celts would carry out certain activities to hide from spirits as they believed that the souls of the dead would always return on the 1st of November. The first formal name this holiday had was ‘All Saints Eve’ - honouring saints and martyrs; as time passed the name gradually changed into All Hallow’s Eve, and finally, as we know it, to Halloween.

Some of the most visual symbols of Halloween are jack-o’-lanterns, putting on costumes, lighting bonfires and the most general one, trick-or-treating. ‘How are these related to the ancient holiday?’ you may ask. Well, the Celts would hide behind costumes - hiding away from dead, lighting bonfires to scare the dead and such. It wasn't long before a lot of other modern traditions were added to the list, such as the telling of horror stories, the pulling of pranks and the visiting of haunted attractions.

So the big question is, should we indulge into Halloween in Malaysia? Of course! In fact, wouldn’t it be radical to have a Halloween event right here in Cempaka School? If kids were to celebrate Halloween, they would definitely be able to get the gears in their minds grinding more, thinking more creatively for the costumes. I mean, these days everyone’s starting to dress more and more intriguing to celebrate Halloween, aren’t they? Sure, you have the regular Disney princesses and witches, but the game really goes up when you know they go the extra mile; supposedly when they start dressing up like The Grudge. Okay, now THAT is absolutely terrifying. Not only that, but kids would learn to be more sociable. They would form alliances when one of the houses are reluctant to give out candy, and maybe ‘trick’ the house. That’s one way to get more friends, to socialise with more trick-or-treaters.

On top of all that, you get free candy! You heard me, FREE CANDY. I think by now we can all agree that Halloween is a holiday we should truly embrace more, rejoicing in candy. Wouldn’t that be a great way to end the night?