Light Within: Desi Halloween

Desi Halloween
Monday, 1 October 2007

Halloween is a tradition celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting sweets - Pumpkins, jack o’ lanterns, autumn, the turning leaves, fire, goblins, monsters, blood, fire and evil are signs. It is celebrated in parts of the Western world. Halloween originated among the Celts in Ireland, Britain and France as the Pagan Celtic harvest festival, Samhain. Irish, Scots, Calan Gaeaf in Welsh and other immigrants brought versions of the traditions to North America in the 19th century. Most other Western countries have embraced Halloween as a part of American pop culture in the late 20th century.

The festival has recently become popular with children and young people in Pakistan and is especially celebrated in Lahore with delicious food and music. The Daily Times carries a report which says how people are preparing for this foreign tradition:

Yaseen Salman, an event organizer, said that Pakistanis had localized Halloween. Children in the West went trick-or-treating door-to-door in fancy costumes, he said, but Pakistanis arranged get-togethers, dance parties, concerts and sometimes horror shows.

Restaurants and cafes also arrange special events to celebrate the festival. Saleem Aslam from Café Nouvelle on MM Alam Road said the café had arranged a number of games to celebrate Halloween. Only couples would be allowed in the restaurant on the night, he said, “to prevent trouble”.

Bobbing For Apples is the most common traditional Halloween game, in which the participants try to remove apples floating in a basin of water with their teeth. A variant involves kneeling on a chair, holding a fork between the teeth and trying to poke the fork into an apple. In another common game, participants eat treacle or syrup-coated scones hanging on strings.

The dress code had been decided, Saleem said, and caramel mouse cakes, apples in sweet syrup and cocoa butter with icing sugar were the new arrivals at Halloween.

Mehreen Syed, a model, said she had been invited by a number of friends which showed that the western festival was now becoming popular in Pakistan. “Black, orange, purple, green and red are the common colors on Halloween accompanied by scary masks,” she said.

Popular model Neha said she celebrated the event in a casual way. “I hang out with friends, go out for dinner or arrange a Halloween party at my house.”

Iffat Omer said she was too old to celebrate Halloween but celebrated the event with her daughter in London last year. She said she was invited to a Halloween party where everybody wore masks and people had to get registered so that random couples were made. The partners didn’t know who they were dancing with, she said. Preparations for Halloween began a month before the festival in the West, she said.

Iman Ali said she was waiting for something exciting on Halloween this year. “Last year I watched Scary Movies on the big screen with friends and attended some parties,” she said.

Like so many other western cultural the trend, Halloween is becoming popular in Pakistan. What is your take on this?

posted by S A J Shirazi @ Monday, October 01, 2007,

13 Comments:

At 10:12 AM PKT, Marz said...: Personally I think it's a good thing, to know that holidays fuse to so-called distinct 'separation' between the so-called 'East' and the so-called 'West'.
At 10:14 AM PKT, Marz said...: Okay, it seems like my words were garbled in the last comment. I was meant to say this:

"Personally I think it's a good thing, to know that holidays are now being shared, perhaps to fuse the so-called distinct 'separation' between the so-called 'East' and the so-called 'West'."

There we go. =)
At 11:23 AM PKT, Alina said...: Romania also imported the holiday in the past few years. I think it's not adapted to us in any way, especially since we have a similar celebration on St Andrew's, a month later.

It is though a reason to decorate the stores, sell stuff, organize parties and radio shows. Children don't really go trick or treating, but I cannot say I am totally against it as it is a reason to celebrate.
At 1:37 PM PKT, Sidhusaaheb said...: During my trip to Pakistani Punjab, I found out that there are Christian families in small towns, as well as villages.

I wonder if they celebrate Halloween as well and, if so, what all things do they do to celebrate.
At 8:42 PM PKT, Teresa said...: I have always had Halloween, but when I lived in Germany in the 90s they didn't trick or treat and now they are. I think any holiday/observance that highlights what we all have in common instead of our differences is a good thing.
At 2:58 PM PKT, 'ka said...: happy halloween!!!

as for me... well, i'm not a big fan of halloween, but i don't mind at all. 'cuz it's still fun to see the different costumes people are wearing... some are very very creative
At 5:28 PM PKT, Anonymous said...: I just dislike this spooky Irish-American festival ! It's not a christian festival and is not celebrated in countries where it has not been exported to.
At 3:38 AM PKT, Fletch said...: I borrowed your pumpkin image for a post, credited of course, I hope you don't mind.
Hope you had a great Halloween.
At 11:29 AM PKT, asma said...: halloween=Christmas

Hence ahppy halloween and merry christmas!
At 7:17 PM PKT, blueVicar said...: Halloween around the world...so much the same, but some interesting differences.

I'm out reading Halloween related posts by expatriate bloggers (I don't know that you are an expat, but I like your blog!)...and putting the links to them on my blog.

Meilleurs vœux!
At 10:12 AM PKT, (¯`•._.•[Raaji]•._.•´¯) said...: Really? Halloween in Pakistan? Seriously?

me not liking the sound of this.

com on now.. where did our culture go? errgghh.
At 1:06 AM PKT, weight loss tips said...: You forgot to mention haunted houses and scary movies! This is my favorite holiday!
At 7:10 AM PKT, Anonymous said...: You will get a beautiful cloth which in the game if we want to need the beautiful cloth, we can use our own Scions Of Fate gold to buy. The one I owned on my character is one of my friends sent to me the necessary SOF gold. Sometimes we can share the trophy as the necessary Scions Of Fate money together, and we do quest together. I do not have enough confidence and cheap SOF gold about my weak memory. First I have to buy sof gold to improve my pet which I have a lovely leopard in this game.