Hey guys! It has been two weeks since my last blog. I just recovered from the flu lately, after two weeks of coughing, sneezing and sore throat. I heard that the flu this year is stronger than last year, remember to get a flu vaccine and take care 😊
In this blog, I would like to throwback to Halloween last month. I hope you guys had a lovely Halloween. Halloween is my second favourite day (my most favourite celebration is Christmas!), if you didn’t celebrate Halloween this year, I highly recommend you to celebrate Halloween with your friends next year, you will find it fun and interesting.
Alright, for those freshers from Malaysia, Halloween falls on October 31 each year. The tradition originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. The Celts are the people who lived 2,000 years ago, mostly in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France. They celebrated their new year on 1st November. Hence, 31st October marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. Therefore, people would wear costumes to ward off ghosts, and gather to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to Celtic deities (this is why we celebrate bonfire night. Over time, Halloween evolved into a day of activities like trick-or-treating, carving jack-o-lanterns, festive gatherings, donning costumes and eating treats.
There are lots of activities you could do during Halloween. When I was in my first year, my friends and I put on make-up by drawing pumpkins and spiders on our faces. We went for a walk to the town centre to ‘feel’ the celebration atmosphere. Trust me, you will be amazed by how creative people are in dressing up for Halloween XD. In my second year, I went to watch a musical with a Halloween theme together with my flatmate. I was shocked to see a man who dressed up like a real Joker appear in the movie (yeah, that year is the year when the movie Joker was very popular). Moreover, I went ice skating. There was an event in Guildford Spectrum that asked us to dress up before entering the ice rink.
This year, my flatmates and I would like to invite our friends to our flat to celebrate Halloween together. We started decorating our kitchen a few days before Halloween. We bought a colour changing LED light strip and stickers of bats, pumpkins, and spiders. We also bought a few pumpkins for pumpkin carving (small tips: get the pumpkins early because they will be sold out very fast). In addition, we bought lots of candies and chocolate too. It was so exciting when we were decorating our kitchen. On that day, we dressed up. It was pretty weird to see a Spiderman, a zombie, a terrorist, and a Squid Game participant (yeah, this year’s hottest issue is definitely the Squid Game!) to be on the same occasion though.
Also, when I went to the yoga session on Friday (30th October), everyone dressed up too. I hadn’t bought my costume at the time, so I drew a pumpkin on my face mask, haha! There was a competition where the one with the best costume would get free merch from the yoga society. I am not the winner, but we spent a nice time together celebrating Halloween in Wates House after the yoga session.
Halloween is fun, isn’t it? Don’t miss Halloween next year! Haha! I know that we don’t celebrate Halloween in Malaysia, so it’s a good chance for us to learn the western culture here. I am now looking forward to Black Friday (although it’s not a festival, there will be lots of discounts on that day) and Christmas! Can’t wait for it!
