Yahoo! Answers Blog Malaysia

What is Halloween? Besides knowing that it falls on the last day of October, all things scary and goes bump in the night appears, and American children like to dress up and go around asking for sweets, what does it actually mean and how did it originate? Have you ever wondered?

Doing a search on Yahoo! Answers with the keywords “Origin” and “Halloween” actually gave me 168 answers! (the number 168 is lucky in Cantonese by the way – “prosperity all the way” – but I digress )  One Answerer, talesofafemalenoamd, asked “What is the true origin of Halloween? Where did trick-or-treating come from?“. Fiona replied, giving a really long and well-thought-out answer that highlights how the name “Halloween” came from (from the words “All Hallows’ Even”), where the scary bits came from (it originated from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain) and even a small paragraph on trick-n-treat!

However, for an Asian country like Malaysia, I think Halloween has become commercialised. Pubs join in the fun by promoting Halloween-themed parties (there’s a Halloween party at Pure Bar in Malacca this Friday!). Supermarkets sell candy and chocolates in shapes of ghosts, skulls and zombies. Horror movies are coming out in droves this Thursday in the cinema. To me, Halloween doesn’t mean anything much, but just another opportunity to have fun. I think the Chinese “7th Month” and other types of hantus freak me out more! LOL! What about you? Does Halloween mean anything to you?