Halloween: Everything you need to know about the horror festival | Life & Knowledge

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On October 31, the night of All Saints’ Day, it is Halloween again.

“Trick or Treat”, “Trick or Treat” – on the evening of October 31st, your neighbors’ children, disguised as witches or vampires, could stand in front of your door and vigorously demand sweets. And also cheekily threaten with nasty pranks if they don’t get anything. Do not scold, this is allowed on this day!

By the way: If you don’t have any sweets ready, the little gang of horrors can perhaps be satisfied with a little money in an emergency.

But Halloween is not only popular with children. Many adults also celebrate their own Halloween parties, dressed up ghostly, or decorate their houses with painted or painted carved pumpkins, eat and drink strange looking things like black rubber spiders, glass eyes made of sugar, chopped off fingers made of marzipan or black and red “blood” cocktails.

We’ll explain it exactly to everyone who doesn’t really know what it is. You can also read here how to celebrate Halloween in a really scary way.

What is actually celebrated on Halloween?

Halloween, the word comes from English, abbreviated from “All Hallows Evening”. What is meant is the evening before All Saints’ Day.

Even if today it’s all about partying in costumes and above all about lustful creeps: celebrating Halloween is an age-old tradition. It comes from the Celts.

The story of Halloween:

  • 2500 years ago, in the Iron Age, the Celts lived in large parts of Central Europe. They aligned their calendars with the agricultural cycle of the vegetation and celebrated the turn of the year on the evening of the eleventh full moon of the year with the festival of “Samhain”, the Gaelic word for November.
  • What the Celts believed: On this evening the “border between the worlds” was open and the dead could come back to earth. With lights they shone the way for the spirits of the dead.
  • The Irish modified the custom. They scared the dead. To scare them off, they disguised themselves in scary masks.
  • In the Middle Ages, Christians were also allowed to celebrate Samhain. Pope Gregory IV set November 1st as All Saints’ Day in 837.
  • Irish emigrants brought the festival to the United States and Canada in the 19th century. It became an important economic factor there.

For a good 20 years, Halloween has also been celebrated in Germany – with everything that goes with it.

And what does Halloween have to do with pumpkins?

The most important Halloween accessory is a smile. The typical Halloween colors for Halloween are black, orange, green, white and red.

Foto: imago images/Panthermedia

In English, the typical pumpkin lanterns are called “Jack-O-Lanterns”. There is a legend about this:

The Irish farrier Jack Oldfield had got involved with the devil. When he was dead and wanted to go to heaven, he was turned away because of it. But even in hell they didn’t want him. The devil sent him back to earth and gave him only a piece of red-hot coal. To keep the precious coal from burning up, Jack put it in a hollowed-out pumpkin. Jack, the undead, is still wandering through the darkness the night before All Saints Day with his glowing turnip lantern and trying to ward off evil spirits with the light.

How to make an impressive decorative pumpkin:

The Halloween pumpkin is particularly suitable Nutmeg Pumpkin. It should have a smooth surface and still be very firm.

  • First, place it on a non-slip surface. Rub it clean with a damp cloth. Then cut a large hole around the stalk with a wide knife. The stalk later serves as a lid.
  • Now the stones and the pulp are removed with a wide spoon. Draw a matching horror face on a piece of paper and attach it to the pumpkin with crepe.
  • Now first of all pierce the outlines with a pointed object through the paper and into the pumpkin. Then cut with a sharp, pointed knife along the puncture points to the inside. The face is done.
  • Wipe the pumpkin well with kitchen paper and apply hairspray to the surface, it shines nicely and makes the pumpkin last longer.
  • Now put a candle in the pumpkin and put the lid on.
  • Caution! Put the pumpkin outside. It lasts longer there. The pulp turns into soup or oven vegetables.

Costumes and make-up

Do you have an invitation for Halloween? But no idea how to get dressed?

Here are some simple tips and tricks for a real horror figure without much effort.

► What still applies to young and old: Vampires, witches and zombie outfits always work. But also cowboy or superman costumes are particularly popular with boys.

► Also totally terrible and very easy to do:

The floating head

You put on a black, strapless top and paint your neck completely black. The darker the environment, the more blatant the optical illusion!

What helps: the eerie darkness at most Halloween parties.

The upturned face

The advantage: You don’t need theater make-up for this make-up!

Small disadvantage: a little artistic talent is required. But the effect is really great and the sight super-scary.

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A few more tips:

▶ ︎ Fake blood can easily be replaced with red jam or jelly.

▶ ︎ Wax for modeling wounds can be used for other purposes through the adhesive from a glue stick (NO superglue!).

▶ ︎ Toilet paper and cotton wool bring the 3-D effect to every make-up.

▶ ︎ Baby powder or flour can be mixed with a little day cream to create a light make-up.

And this is how you make up open wounds:

With a mix of fake blood, make-up and a little wax. First apply wax to the appropriate area, brush with red paint and add a little black for the 3-D effect. No professional make-up there? Glue sticks can replace the wax, lipstick and eyeliner the color and the rest is done by the red jam

What pranks are allowed? When is there trouble?

Halloween includes pranks. But what is allowed and what is not?

Smear the doorknob with toothpaste, throw confetti in the mailbox or swipe the doorbell, all of these are probably harmless.

Even if you turn your friend’s car into a mummy with toilet paper, you don’t have to fear any consequences, as long as it remains undamaged.

But: Anyone who sticks a coin somewhere, for example, should do without super glue.

Basically: Whether pranks are funny is always in the eye of the beholder! So always think carefully about how the other person might find it.

To get in the mood: “Halloween” – the film

The successful horror film series about the psychotic serial killer Michael Myers goes back to the strip “Halloween – The Night of Horror” (1978) by John Carpenter. Babysitter Laurie Strode meets serial killer Michael Myers.

Is Halloween a public holiday?

Halloween is in Germany no National holiday.

→ However, Halloween overlaps with Reformation Day, on which Protestants commemorate Martin Luther. This day is a public holiday in a total of nine federal states.

Even if Halloween is not a public holiday for you, it can still be fun. If you don’t want to go out, you can have a little scary party at home. With the right decoration, gruesomely beautiful treats and the right costumes, the party is sure to be a success.

Halloween and Corona

Health and safety are also the most important things when celebrating Halloween: Whether 3G or 2G – the current Corona rules naturally also apply to private and commercial Halloween events. So you should always have a mask as well as test and vaccination cards with you, in addition to shower make-up and horror costume.

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