The Spirit's Day, Halloween

A witch on a broom, pumpkin lamps and children in ghost costumes on the street. Those things make us think of Halloween. October 31, people in ghost costumes make fun of passersby and do creepy events in the U.S.A in which Halloween is celebrated on a large-scale. Some groups of children stop by every door and show their candy sack to the neighbors saying “trick or treat" and we can easily see pumpkin lamps lighting up the whole neighborhood. Korea also enjoys Halloween. When we go along the busy streets or into department stores, we can see ornaments decorated around that place and some employees in stunning monster costumes who welcome the customers. Still in Korea, Halloween is not a well-known event as it is in the USA, but it is true that nowadays, we are interested in Halloween. So, when did Halloween begin? Halloween began with the custom that the Celtish settlers from Ireland brought to the U.S.A,

Chapter 1. The popular two questions about Halloween
Why do people wear costumes like ghosts and decorate their house scarily and light their pumpkin lamps?
The ancient Celts considered the first of November as New Year's day; that is why they believed the dead spirits come down to the ground and go around on October 31. So, the scared Celts made a fire and gave them food in order to avoid their attacks. And to protect themselves from ghosts, they decorated their house with fearful things and wore costumes like a ghost to pretend that they were ghosts. There is a pumpkin lamp named Jack-O' Lantern. It is the most typical symbol. In conclusion, they did that because they were scared.

How to make Jack-o' Lantern
1. Choose a smooth and roundish well-ripened pumpkin.

2. Put some newspapers on the table, prepare a big spoon and a small one and a sharp knife that can cut in detail.
3. Cut the upper part in a hexagon. Make sure that the knife is tilted from the outside when you cut so that the lid doesn't fall down when you put it back on.
4. Take out all contents from the pumpkin.
5. Make a draft face design with a pen then cut the design.
6. Scrape up the bottom to be plane and put a candle inside of the pumpkin. A white candle has better lighting and it's safe as well as it lasts a long time if you put it in a glass case.

We want to enjoy Halloween day but we don't know where and how we can enjoy. Give us some information please.
If you look for it, there are some places to enjoy Halloween, especially in clubs and bars. Most of the clubs and bars create a Halloween atmosphere from the week before Halloween. Maybe, you can feel the atmosphere in the big clubs on Hong-Ik Street. And it is easy to feel the atmosphere in the Itaewon where there are many foreigners. For people who want to enjoy Halloween without drinks, Everland and Lotte world will hold Halloween festivals. Lotte world starts their Halloween march from September 4 to November 1. In the case of Everland, they hold their Halloween party from September 11 to November 1. And it includes a game that guests can join. The game is called 'don't lose a battle with ghosts.'

Chapter 2. The Halloween of Christopher who is living in California, 21 years old.
Oh! Wow, today is Halloween again…‧ It’s been a year already? Well it’s not much of a day today until nighttime, since that’s when everything happens; morning and afternoon are like those of every other typical day. Time to get the house ready tonight, decorating the house and buying those cavity-filled candies for the brats that will be ringing our doorbell tonight.
So it’s about 5p.m. right now. It should be fun seeing what costumes everyone else is wearing tonight. Every year people have creative minds about how to decorate their houses as well as their costumes. It’s like seeing houses decorated for Christmas; it’s fascinating to go around the neighborhood and checking out how creative people can get.
It’s 7p.m. and everyone is out on the streets, time to get going and meet the guys. Man! Oh man! Tonight was such a great night, and the guys and I laughed so hard seeing little kids being scared by teenagers or even getting scared by the look of the house. But that’s the spirit of Halloween, trying to scare people. It’s even sad how they would try to scare adults but hey, it works. After going around town for candy, we picked up a few loads of sweets that I would probably never even eat. It’s been a fun night hanging out with the pals and seeing what they all dressed up like. I’m looking forward to it again next year.

Savio Lee dkherald@gmail.com

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