Halloween or Hallow Eve is a global festival celebrated on October 31 in the Western Christian world. Its origin comes from The Celtic Pagan holiday; hence many beliefs are based on ancient mythology. Many symbols of Halloween, such as pumpkins, ghosts, witches, skeletons, and lanterns, are closely connected with their original purposes. The festival’s roots came from the traditions of religious attention to the edge between the world of the living and the dead (Shabnam, 2021). Such practices as sharing food with every visitor on Hallow Eve, making bonfires, or wearing a mask to protect oneself from evil greatly influenced the modern holiday but lost its initial nature.
Nowadays, society accepts some elder traditions as norms – such as wearing a costume to school or work, giving candies during trick or treat, supporting a dark atmosphere with horror movies and stories, and house decorations. These activities create solid values for society – adults giving candies to the children build an understanding of generosity, and the tradition of trick-or-treating simulates a small community of children involved in the same cause (Kelly & Riach, 2018). Consequently, celebrating Halloween contributes to the general feeling of involvement in global social interaction through supporting the same traditions.
Altogether holidays create social solidarity by integrating Durkheim’s concept of collective conscience (Conerly et al., 2021). Following the same norms, traditions, and values, people maintain strong common ties within the society. It also creates temporal mechanical solidarity during the holiday seasons and festivities, for instance, most children going trick-or-treating. Holidays were invented by the process of initialization, while the beliefs and values are justified by people. Therefore, holidays are grounded by society and, as a result, contribute to its solidarity.
References
Conerly, T. R., Holmes, K., & Tamang, A. L. (2021). Introduction to sociology 3e. OpenStax.
Kelly, S., & Riach, K. (2018). Halloween, organization, and the ethics of uncanny celebration. Journal of Business Ethics, 161, 103–114.
Shabnam, Y. (2021). American Halloween: enculturation, myths, and consumer culture. Proceedings of ‏the 3rd International Academic Conference on Research in Social Sciences. Diamond Scientific Publishing.