Our Top Unique Halloween Traditions To Start This Year

As our favorite time of the year, Halloween draws from multiple cultures, both new and old, creating a delightfully spooky experience. Traditions are essential - they allow us to take time to treasure where we are now, and celebrating Halloween is just one time of the year that allows people to reflect on the year so far and acknowledge the dark within ourselves. The chill of the air, the turning of the leaves, and the days growing shorter make Halloween a time to reflect and remember. If you're looking for ways to make this holiday unique, we're here to provide recommendations for new and old traditions to celebrate this time of the year.

What is Halloween Truly All About?

Halloween originated from the precursor holiday Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival that honored the ancestors. During Samhain, it is believed that this time of the year was the thinnest veil between life and the otherworld, making connecting with those deceased easier. Death became part of the normal and natural process throughout people's journeys, and until Christianity came, this holiday was celebrated as All Hallow's Eve to continue honoring the dead. The tradition of wearing Halloween masks and Halloween costumes only came about during colonial America, when protestant and Irish immigrants would bring their traditions with them, celebrating the harvest, sharing stories of the dead, and going house to house for "trick-or-treats"!

Since then, traditions, new and old, have come and gone. The commercial success of Halloween has brought about newer ideas and concepts, bringing scary stories to life with horror movies of all sorts. From the classics to the new age, Halloween and horror have since been a match made in hell.

Traditions You Can Do This Upcoming Halloween

So, what can you do to celebrate Halloween that's not the usual trick-or-treating gig? Here are our top recommendations to make your holiday as spooky as ever:

• Campfire Ghost Stories: Want a nice weekend out in the woods on or before Halloween? Taking your family out to tell scary ghost stories can help get you in the Halloween spirit.
• Plan A "Dumb" Supper: "Dumb" suppers are suppers you'd eat in total silence to remember your loved ones and originate back in the Middle Ages. Who knows - the ghosts of your loved ones may join you!
• Go Mummering: Mummering is a tradition where people dress up in disguises and go door to door, offering food, drink, and money to others. While mummering can happen at any time of the year, mummers is a unique tradition of singing, dancing, and playing music. There are even parades each year that celebrate this tradition in full!
• Attend a Local Haunt: Local haunts are on the rise, and as more horror seeps into the night of Halloween, attending a local haunt will certainly get your skin crawling with fear and joy!
• Throw Some Pumpkin Chuckin: In some parts of the country, people participate in Pumpkin chuckin' events, where people compete to throw the biggest pumpkins as far as they can go out into the open fields. It's steampunk, catapulting fun!

If you want to explore what to do this Halloween more, why not look at what Horror Dome can provide for you for all of your Halloween mask and costume needs for this time of the year?