Celebrating Halloween is all about wearing spooky dresses, scary storytelling, and enjoying special delicacies. It brings times to make merry and greet the new season with cheer. India celebrates several western festivals with great enthusiasm. Valentine’s Day, New Year celebration and Christmas are some of the prominent examples. Celebrating Halloween develops a sense of imagination, especially among kids. Halloween can also help in breaking myths and superstitions about ghosts. Of course, like all festivals, Halloween should also be advertised with ventures, exclusive offers, and entertainment. After all, it is just a festival. It is a day to enjoy ourselves with each other, have good times, and exchange gifts. And who doesn’t like all this?
HALLOWEEN IN INDIA
Just like New Year’s Eve and Valentine’s Day, Halloween is now also gaining special attention in India. Especially the people in the metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai celebrate Halloween with much enthusiasm. In these cities, pubs and hotels offer scary theme parties to attract customers. Here, its craze is high, especially among the youth.
On the day of Halloween, people in metro cities started dressing up like ghosts with scary makeup. Apart from that, family entertainment parks, kids’ play zones, and activity centers organize Halloween costume parties for children too. Restaurants in metro cities serve Halloween-themed dishes.
Due to the association of violent and horror images of this festival India also faced criticism about celebrating this festival. A couple of reasons given against celebrating Halloween in India are:
- According to the Indian mindset, it is not a tradition to indulge in the celebration of the departed souls and saints by highlighting horror and ghosts. Even if it is done on a lighter note and fun way, as in Halloween.
- Indian traditions perceive remembrance by fasting or prayer and charity in the specific period called ‘Pitri Paksha’. The tradition to commemorate the departed souls with festivity doesn’t go well with them.
Valid enough. But reasons to have fun are no less.
It is noteworthy that Halloween celebrations are about theme parties, spooky costumes, and storytelling sessions with special delicacies. All this has to be observed as cultural integration. It doesn’t replace Indian traditions of remembrance. Just like our train of festivals that run throughout the year, this could be an add-on. We can delight in bidding goodbye to autumn and welcoming winters.
Ideas for celebrating Halloween
1. Host a Halloween Party
Hosting a Halloween party can be a lot of hard work, but it is the most fun way of celebrating Halloween in India. Deck up your house with Halloween decorations like fake cobwebs, jack-o-lanterns, pumpkins, hanging skeletons, and more.
Plan your food and drinks in Halloween style with eateries shaped like monsters, and cupcakes oozing out blood-colored jam. Put the cocktails and drinks in a cauldron. Play eerie music in the background and create a perfect Halloween atmosphere.
Your guests are sure to fall in love with the party as they hang around in their scary costumes. If you do not plan on hosting a party, attend a Halloween party in India that is happening in your neighborhood or any of the restaurants or clubs in town.
2. Have a Scary Sleepover Night?
Who doesn’t love sleepovers? Sleepovers are perfect night outs having a fun time with your friends, eating, chit-chatting, catching up on movies, and more. So, why not celebrate Halloween with a spooky sleepover?
Catch up on scary horror movies and storybooks to scare the wits out of each other. Watch back to back horror movies and spend a thrilling night with your loved ones.
Decorate your room with candles, and dim lights and create a spooky feel.
Load up on junk food and popcorn and keep it simple. Board games like Ouija or other games like truth or dare can be played through the night. Girls can even do scary makeovers and have a fun-filled selfie session at the night.
3. Plan for a haunted hangout with friends
Want to do something really thrilling and experience spine-chilling moments this Halloween? This plan is strictly prohibited for the weak-hearted. Gather your gang and head out for a haunted expedition in the night. Visit an old graveyard, cemetery, or haunted house.
Walking through dark places with your gang of friends will give you a spooky feel. Let the prankster of the group play scary tricks and scare each other for the ultimate fun.
Have a well-spent Halloween night roaming around with your group of friends. This is a great way of celebrating Halloween in India, without really spending much. All you need is a merry gang of close-knit friends.
4. Eerie Camping Trip
Going on a road trip with friends or family is surely fun, isn’t it? It can be all the more fun to do it on Halloween. How about a camping trip in the deep woods? Decided a place on a lonely hilltop or amongst the woods. Make tents, light a bonfire and enjoy hot chocolate along with toasted marshmallows or savor spicy treats.
Share horror stories, and play games to make it a more thrilling Halloween night. The eerie sounds of the jungle and the insects will surely add the drama for a perfect Halloween ambiance.
5. Head out to Night Clubs or Restaurants
Nightclubs or restaurants in India have begun the tradition of hosting Halloween parties that will go in till the wee hours of the morning. Guests get dressed in spooky costumes with scary makeup and enjoy drinks and food served there.
Head out to a bar, restaurant, or nightclub for a wild Halloween party in India. The interiors of these places are revamped to bring in a scary ambiance of Halloween. Even the menu is given a facelift with exclusive Halloween treats.
From drinks that look like blood to eateries designed like gravestones, restaurants and nightclubs go all the way out to strike fear in your heart. So, people in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, and Delhi, celebrate Halloween in the style at one of these places.
6. Halloween Fancy Dress Competition for Children
Get the little ones involved and dress them up in interesting costumes. It does not necessarily have to be scary – anything is fine. Let your creative mind think of some cool ideas for the best costume.
Have a small costume party for the kids and give out prizes for the best costume. Also, organize competitions like pumpkin carving, apple bobbing, Halloween bingo, and Halloween treasure hunt.
