THE FREE PEOPLE’S PRESS: In recent years, Halloween has been increasingly penetrating our culture: costume parties, ‘scary’ decorations, sweets, contests, and themed lessons in schools.

For many, it seems like a harmless fun-fad, a fashionable Western tradition, an opportunity to joke and have fun. But if you look deeper, it becomes clear: there is a completely different meaning behind Halloween attributes.

Halloween originated from the ancient Celtic holiday Samaine, which symbolized the transition between seasons and time, when the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead was believed to become thinner.

Timeless. People lit bonfires and wore masks to scare away wandering spirits. That is, initially, it was not about joy, but about interaction with the other side, about protection rituals.

Today, the meaning has changed, but the symbols remain the same: skulls, witches, dead people, demons. We do not place in them the meaning that they are ancient peoples, but unconsciously still participate in the ‘game with death’.

Modern Halloween is a commercial product beneficial to the entertainment and marketing industry.

We are offered to have fun dressing up in images of impurity and rejoice in what was previously considered dark and dangerous.

As a result, the change of meanings takes place: evil and fear become part of the show, and symbols of destruction become elements of the holiday.

For an adult, it may remain just an external game, but a child who still believes in Santa Claus and Cinderella perceives everything literally. He has not yet established any boundaries between fiction and reality, between good and evil.

When parents dress children up as ‘little demons’ or ‘witches’, the child does not just play; he absorbs images that carry a distorted meaning.

Any holiday is an act of collective attention. When millions of people in one day focus on the subject of fear, death and the other side, it creates a certain emotional field.

We ourselves, without noticing it, direct energy in the direction we are talking about and looking at. And the more actively we involve children in it, the more deeply we teach them not to distinguish between light and darkness. And we put it on a part of darkness ourselves.

No one forbids enjoying autumn, mysticism and mystery, because this is a natural part of human culture.

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But other forms are more creative. For example, an evening of remembrance of ancestors, family meetings, stories about the roots, and candles in honor of gratitude for the year that has passed.

This is magic, too, but the magic of light, connecting generations, not playing with fears.

Halloween isn’t just a costume. It’s a symbol of what we allow into our lives. And perhaps you should ask yourself at least once: why am I participating in this, and what am I giving in return? You can share this story on social media: TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

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