Globalization extends to the colourful and varied world of festivals, and nowhere is this more robustly realized and relished than in our own country, India. How else can one explain the growing fascination with one of the most patently Western festivals, Halloween, which is celebrated with pomp and pageantry across the country, albeit in the more elite sections of society?

Halloween originated as a Celtic festival 2000 years ago called Samhain (pronounced sow-in) on a day which marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the winter, October 31st. The Celts held that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth on that day. They also believed that the presence of these spirits enabled the Druids or priests to foretell the future. To commemorate this event, celebrations with bonfires, costumery (to ward off ghosts) and fortune-telling abounded.

By the early and mid-1900s, Halloween had become a community-centered and secular holiday, especially in the USA,