When the heat is down and autumn smell is felt outside, here and there in Japan become lively with Halloween decoration.
It seems that Halloween has been held in various places all over and have become one of the entertainments among youth. It also has become more exciting especially for the past few years. Do not you feel like that?
This time, let us examine the difference between Halloween in Japan and Overseas. And how it has originated.
The Halloween festival is said to have originated from Ireland and Scotland as the fall harvest festival and exorcism ceremony that ancient Celts had done.

The ancient Celtic people had celebrated November 1st as the New Year.
And it was thought that the soul of the deceased comes to meet families on October 31st, the day of the New Year's Eve, and it was believed that demon also comes along at the same time.
Because demon spears children and makes bad things to livestock and agricultural crops, people started to wear off faces and masks to surprise evil spirits and kick them out.
After that, the Celtic people were invaded by the Christian Catholics, but this exercise of the Celts still continued, and taken into Christianity as well.
In Christianity, the November 1st is called “All Hallow 's Day”, a holiday celebrating all saints and martyrs.
And the eve of that, October 31st started to be called as "All Hallow 's Even" and abbreviated as "Halloween" or "Hallowe'en".

Halloween is mainly conducted in English-speaking countries, especially in Ireland, the origin of Halloween, when the last day of the month is a holiday.
Nowadays, the habit of celebrating Halloween remains in its purest form.
Also, even in the same English-speaking countries, it is originally believed that it is a religious festival of Celtic people, because of Christian influence.
Some religions do not celebrate Halloween and others are cautious to refrain from having Halloween.
Religious implications almost disappear in the United States and now, it seems to be one of the climbing events.
Speaking of Halloween, many people think about pumpkin, called "Jack O`Lantern", which is hollowed from inside and light up like a lamp. Originally, it seems that the Celtic people had been using turnip instead of pumpkin. However, when it went to the United States, the turnip was not very much known, and replaced by pumpkin which was harvested a lot. It is said that Ireland and Scotland, the origin of Halloween, still use turnips now."Jack O'Lantern" is translated into Japanese as "a man holding a hanging lamp." The story was derived from a rough man who lived in Ireland named "Jack" who liked alcoholic beverages a lot. Jack promises that he will skillfully deceive the devil and no soul will be taken by demons during Halloween. Years later when Jack died he tried to go to the heaven, but since he was doing only bad things, he could not go there. When he went to hell, the devil who was at the gate did not let him in as he “promised not to take his soul". When Jack, who could not go neither to the heaven nor to the hell, the devil said, "I should return to where you were" and Jack starts walking powerlessly.
However, because the road was very dark and hard to walk, Jack asked the devil: "Please give some light". Then the devil shared the fire from the hell, and it is believed that he cut out nearby turnip and made lantern, with which he walked through this world and the other world forever. It seems that the lantern that Jack had at this time was decorated for amulets.

When did Halloween start in Japan. 
In the 1970' s, Kidairand Harajuku started selling Halloween - related goods for the first time. And the first Halloween event is said to be "Hello Halloween pumpkin pallet" which was held in Harajuku Omotesando in 1983 as a part of promotion of Kidairland, about 100 participants dressed in Harajuku Omotesando and went on a parade. At the beginning the Halloween's awareness was still low, and participants were more likely to be foreigners, but gradually the number of participants increased, and the event still continues until today.
It is said that Tokyo Disneyland in 1997 and Universal Studios Japan in 2002 held Halloween events, which caused Halloween to be widely known in Japan. As a result of the large-scale theme park Halloween party held at that time, people started to be interested in it more than before. Even nowadays Halloween events are held both at these two theme parks.Other than that, the popularity increased due to children spreading Halloween parties in English classrooms, as well as due to the tools such as SNS, confectionary makers and etc. Also, when talking about Halloween people tend to think of the scrambled intersection in Shibuya. From about the year 2000, it seems that people with fancy dresses started gathering at the scramble intersection in Shibuya. More and more people gathered by the spread of smart phones and SNS around the year 2010, now the police has been mobilized/dispatched, and part of Shibuya intersection has become a so called “pedestrian paradise”. So, it is not clear from when it has started, but would be correct to think that it has started somehow, and became popular.

What is the difference between Japanese Halloween from the one celebrated oversees.
In Japan it is a seasonal event where a lot of people are so excited, but as it was mentioned earlier, in the United States and other English-speaking countries as the religious implications are gone, it became a festival for kids with lots of fun and excitement. Japanese Halloween looks like a Funny dress and masks tournament for foreigners. Oversees people wear masks and costumes "To scare the evil spirits away" or "To make them think that they are friends as evil spirits", so they are more dressed as demons and devils. But in Japan, there is no choice but to dress up in an animated cartoon costumer, movie or game character etc., and people participating in the event often do not know the original meaning.
Well, you know that Japanese Halloween has little to do with the original Halloween. Christmas seems to be the same, but Japanese people like to enjoy and celebrate overseas festivals and events independently in their own way. However, in the Halloween event, there is a problem with large amount of garbage left over, so we do hope that everyone will participate with following good manners.