India Gets Its 'Spook' On To Celebrate Halloween

I-Kandy, Gurgaon has DJ Aqeel playing throughout the night. Kitty Su — The Lalit, Barakhamba Road, is celebrating the occasion with a graveyard theme.

Halloween parties are not only limited to Delhi, cities like Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore are also organising events to celebrate the occasion.

“It is an opportunity for people to dress up and enjoy. For them it is just another party,” General Manger and Chef of Stone Water Grill, Pune, Shailendra Kakade told IANS.

Stone Water Grill has been organising this event since 2008.

“People are quite aware of what Halloween actually is. Since the last two years, the crowd has been huge. We usually give away prizes to the couple who are at their spookiest best,” Nischint Pathania, general manager, Skyy Lounge, Ramada Powai, Hotel and Convention Centre, Mumbai, said.

“Bangalore’s cosmopolitan young crowd is adventurous and always looking for something new and different,” Pravesh Pandey, Director (Operations), HIGH Ultra Lounge, Bangalore, said.

According to Pandey, Halloween parties were discouraged by city authorities a few years back, but they are back in trend now.

gaining popularity,” Pandey added.

Halloween is celebrated to remember the dead including saints and martyrs. It had its beginnings in an ancient, pre-Christian Celtic festival of the dead in Europe. According to the Celtic calendar, this day marked the beginning of winter. The festival observed by them at the time was called ‘Samhain’.

The Celts believed that on this day, ghosts could mingle with the living as this was the time the spirits would travel to the underworld.

Present day Halloween festivities are enjoyed by people of all ages. Activities include trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, lighting bonfires, telling scary stories, watching horror films and carving pumpkins into ‘Jack-o’-lanterns’.

Jack-o’-lantern, which has become the symbol of Halloween, has many stories as to how it originated. According to an Irish folktale, the Jack-o’-lantern represents a spirit who was denied entry to both heaven and hell.

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