ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
Halloween marks the end of summer and harvest, and the beginning of the cold and dark days of winter. The Celts associated the day with human death. Although this is also the beginning of a new year for them, on the last day of the year gone-by the boundaries between the living and the dead also got blurred.
This is the day the dead came back to earth and possessed the bodies of the living. So the ritual of Halloween is supposed to scare them away by wearing ghoulish costumes and lighting up the darkness.
Over the years, the historical references have been redefined several times over. In New Zealand, we don’t celebrate it in as big a way as it is in the US and European countries. However, in the past couple of years the hype seems to be picking up. Primary schools organised for school discos in the city, while adults crowded around dollar stores buying costumes and makeup to look their scariest best.
In the evening, residential houses were lit up with fairy lights. The children skipped from door to door for trick ’n’ treats. The loot at the end of the day was envious – never mind the fact that they ate them till they felt sick. All said, a good time was had by all.
Halloween marks the end of summer and harvest, and the beginning of the cold and dark days of winter. The Celts associated the day with human death. Although this is also the beginning of a new year for them, on the last day of the year gone-by the boundaries between the living and the dead also...
Halloween marks the end of summer and harvest, and the beginning of the cold and dark days of winter. The Celts associated the day with human death. Although this is also the beginning of a new year for them, on the last day of the year gone-by the boundaries between the living and the dead also got blurred.
This is the day the dead came back to earth and possessed the bodies of the living. So the ritual of Halloween is supposed to scare them away by wearing ghoulish costumes and lighting up the darkness.
Over the years, the historical references have been redefined several times over. In New Zealand, we don’t celebrate it in as big a way as it is in the US and European countries. However, in the past couple of years the hype seems to be picking up. Primary schools organised for school discos in the city, while adults crowded around dollar stores buying costumes and makeup to look their scariest best.
In the evening, residential houses were lit up with fairy lights. The children skipped from door to door for trick ’n’ treats. The loot at the end of the day was envious – never mind the fact that they ate them till they felt sick. All said, a good time was had by all.
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