By: A. Bonde As the last few days of the year draw near, people all over the world are getting ready to say goodbye to the past and welcome the new with joyful festivities that are reflective of the many different cultures and customs that exist in various parts of the world. The celebrations that take place at the end of the year create a diverse mix of global events that bring people together in the spirit of hope and new beginnings. These celebrations range from religious rites to colorful fireworks that illuminate the night sky.
One of the most well-known ways that people in the United States celebrate the countdown to the New Year is by watching the ball drop at Times Square, in New York City. Many people endure the freezing weather to witness the glittering ball as it makes its descent in the middle of Manhattan. There are millions of people all over the world who watch the ceremony on television as well, and it is a symbol of hope for a better future. In India, the end of the year is marked by the celebration of Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights. Families get together to eat and give each other presents, while homes and public areas are decked out in colorful lights and decorations to celebrate the holiday. Since the celebration is a representation of the triumph of good over evil and light over darkness, it gives rise to a joyful and pleasant disposition. The New Year, also known as "Oshogatsu," is a cultural celebration that is deeply rooted in Japanese tradition. During the special lunch known as "osechi-ryori," which is comprised of a variety of symbolic delicacies, families get together to share a meal. As the clock strikes midnight, Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times, which is a symbolic representation of the 108 earthly goals that bring human suffering during that time. Reflection, purification, and the excited prospect of a fresh start are the prevailing emotions at this moment. The spectacular fireworks display that takes place above the Sydney Harbor Bridge on New Year's Eve in Sydney, Australia, is a spectacle that not only captivates millions of people but also leaves them speechless. The fireworks explode into the night, and as they reflect off the waters of the harbor, the city is transformed into a kaleidoscope of colors. In addition to the fireworks, the celebrations include open-air concerts, dance parties, and events that are suitable for families that are held across the community. People from all over the world get together to celebrate the year that has just ended and to express their excitement about the possibility of a fresh start. This can be done through spectacular fireworks, rituals, or lively street celebrations. There is a wave of hope that rushes across the globe as midnight hits in every time zone. This wave of hope brings us all together in the common experience of saying goodbye to the old and greeting the new with open arms and hearts.
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By: I. Papa The best part when a year is coming to an end is all the celebrations that this “end” holds. I look forward to the decorated houses on Halloween, the red and green string lights bringing the euphoric feeling of Christmas to most homes, lighting the candles of the Menorah during Hanukkah inside Jewish homes, and the amazing celebrations on the 31st of December, where we all excitedly await the new year and what shall hold for all of us.
These remarkable celebrations each play a special part at the end of the year. Examples include: Halloween: Halloween, celebrated on the 31st of October, is a holiday that explores the spooky wonders of the world. It is an opportunity to express yourselves through creative costumes, from skeletons to Disney princesses to cartoon characters. Decorating your homes with cobwebs or even small Jacko lanterns, just to add a spooky feeling to your day-to-day life. And, of course, it is about wandering through houses, asking the families who live there for treats to put inside your plastic bucket, and when arriving home, tossing all of them on your bed and trading with friends. Thanksgiving: Although it is not frequently celebrated here in Brazil, it is mostly celebrated in the United States and Canada, Thanksgiving, celebrated on the 23rd of November, is an opportunity for you to celebrate the harvest and previous blessings of your year. You take a moment to appreciate those whom you value greatly, such as family members or cherished friends. It is a moment of gratitude for all the amazing things and people that the year has brought you. Hanukkah: A festival celebrated by Jewish individuals. Due to the ancient miracle of the oil burning a candle for eight nights consistently, Jews light 8 candles on a candle holder known as the menorah, which holds 9 candles, one intended for each night of the celebration, which lasts eight days, and one in the middle known as the “shamash”, which is used to light the other candles. The festival celebrates the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem and reaffirms the ideas of Judaism. Hannukah (Chanuca), is celebrated from the 7th of December to the 15th of December. Christmas: Celebrated on the 25th of December, Christmas is a holiday dedicated to the birth of Jesus Christ, celebrated mostly by Catholic families, but it may also hold a special place for non-religious people. It’s famous for its tropes of decorated trees, and the infamous Santa Claus. It is the jolliest time of year when cities are covered in green and red lights. This celebration varies from country to country, but overall, it is a moment to be with family and enjoy the closing of the year. By: I. Krakowiak New Year’s resolutions are a tradition that dates from centuries back and remains popular among individuals, as it is an opportunity for everyone to reflect on the past year and set goals of self-improvement and growth for the new year. These resolutions can envelop a wide range of areas, such as mental and physical health, personal development, relationships, and many more.
This habit is proven to be effective and good for your overall wellness, as it creates a phenomenon called the “fresh start effect”, explained by livescience.com: “it can act as a ‘temporal landmark’ that gives people a renewed commitment to goals.” Here are some ideas for resolutions:
By: N. Thomas Have you ever sat down on the couch, and spent hours flicking through Netflix or Apple TV, film after film, just never finding that one you really want to watch? I bet you have! And I’m sure you don’t want to go through that again, especially during Halloween. So, lucky for you, this article will give you 2 of the best horror films of all time, so that you can sit down – with all your candy – on the 30th of October and enjoy.
First on this list is one of the scariest movies ever made! ‘The Conjuring’! When a family moves into a lake house wanting to live a peaceful new life, things go sideways. Firstly, the family starts to notice small things, like a sound or a bad feeling, but then larger things occur like falling portraits, slamming doors, and unwanted terrifying spirits haunting – the once peaceful – life of these poor folks. So, these frightened individuals look for help. Ed and Lorraine are famous paranormal investigators, so when they hear what is happening to this family, they know exactly what to do. After investigating the terrifying house, and being present in horrifying moments for a week, the couple performs a violent exorcism to try and get rid of the spirits, but does it work? Second on our list, is another spine-chilling novel, made during the 1980s. You guessed it, ‘The shining’! This frightening story happens in Colorado when a couple and their kid, a small boy, take over a massive hotel during the cold winter. At first, despite the chilling setting, everything is fine, but when the father of the youngster goes crazy, things go seriously wrong. The unwell man suddenly tries to murder his entire family, and with no help whatsoever in the enormous hotel, the little boy and his mom must find ways to survive. Not only is the film already hair-rising with the lunatic man, but the man’s supernatural mental connection with his son takes things to another level. Even though this film might be older, it’s a classic! So, I highly recommend it. To sum up everything, I hope you enjoy your Halloween and fall in love with these excellent, terrifying, 'hiding under the blanket' movies just like I have! By: I. Krakowiak Dear diary,
If someone is reading this, well, I’d say call help, but I guess it’s too late now. Something happened today. Something I never imagined was possible. Just after school ended, under the intense July sun, I was strolling through the ruins of Watsmith street -an abandoned thoroughfare that had become my swiftest route. One foot in front of the other and singing the same tune as always, I started my journey home, when I noticed something rather disturbing. My shadow was not mirroring my calm steps, but twisting and turning, as if it were trying to stretch itself. I watched in horror, with utmost certainty this was not, in fact, usual. The shadow seemed to walk away from me, and being as curious as I am, I followed it; unknowingly making the biggest mistake of my life. As I got closer and closer to reaching it, the shadow sped up its pace, to the point where it was running, and I was running after it. The movement was surprisingly not random at all, as if the once-normal shadow was trying to get somewhere. By this point, I was completely lost, my eyes were held captive by this extraordinary situation before me. Suddenly, the shadow came to a complete stop, and I realized I was at the end of an alley, completely isolated from any human activity. The shadow turned around to face me, and grinned. I had no idea that shadows could grin, but this one could. The grin was evil and full of hatred. This time, I was the one to start running, but the shadow was fast. Once the shadow caught up to me, it penetrated my soul, pushing me out of it. It was over, the shadow now had my body, and I am now the shadow glued to the floor. Therefore, for safety reasons, please remain in well-lit areas at all times. By: A. Lotufo Yet again, the season of Halloween comes and goes, and every year, pumpkins are lit. Children and families cut pumpkins and light them up, decorating their houses full of Halloween spirit. But why are we carving pumpkins anyway? The pumpkin carving tradition goes back many years, and it derives from an Irish myth of a man called “Stingy Jack”. In this myth, Jack tricks the devil for money. When Jack died, God wouldn’t let Jack into heaven and the devil wouldn’t let him into hell, because he fooled the devil and did bad to the world therefore not being accepted into any of the afterlife worlds, condemning Jack to wander the earth for the rest of eternity. In Ireland, people would carve faces into turnips to scare away the spirit of “Stingy Jack”, and when people from Ireland started to immigrate to the U.S., they started using the native alternative, pumpkins. But how did this tradition become a staple for Halloween? An ancient British and Irish festival called the Celtic Festival Samhain is where Halloween came from. It announced the end of Summer and the beginning of the new year on November 1st. During this festival, it was believed that spirits that died the past year would come back to their homes in the overworld, consequently maintaining the tradition of carving pumpkins to scare away the spirits. Halloween is now celebrated on October 31st and the pumpkin carving tradition remains a strong staple for this holiday together with many others that were created along the way for example apple bobbing and trick or treating. By: L. Viegas 1. Witches: Firstly, get a black plain dress, and secondly get some pieces of dark clothing or EVA and cut it into small pieces and add them onto the dress, how is up to you, but I recommend sewing or gluing. Thirdly buy a pointy hat and using EVA add some patches to decorate it. Lastly, get an old broom to carry around just to go the extra mile.
2. For a cute Disney costume for a couple, Wreck-it Ralph is the movie for you. For a Ralph costume get a brown overall and a pinkish shirt. Then for Vanellope get a green hoodie, a black skirt, and q green coloured socks. Assemble it all and you have a great couple costume. (Ideally, the person using the Ralph costume would be taller.) 3. Last but not least is a costume for a big group of girls. It's M&M´s! First, separate a pair of clothing items that match the color of the M&M you choose to dress as. Then using white EVA (or any suitable material) cut an “M” in the same format as the actual chocolate. Do that for every color. Each friend uses one colour and then you will look like a packet of very cute M&M´s. By: V. Penna Earwig and the Witch, from Studio Ghibli, based on a book of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones, was released on October 18th, 2020. It was the first Studio Ghibli film to be fully 3D-animated. Its director was Gorō Miyazaki, he said he was very confident about his film. But was it really good? The book (which the film was based on) has many positive reviews. The majority of them point out that Earwig deals with a bad situation by getting the better out of it. A review in Common Sense Media about this book says: ‘When Earwig's position in life changes from good (living in an orphanage where everyone does what she wants) to bad (being adopted by a witch and a demon and having to do whatever they tell her to do), she doesn't complain. Instead, she looks at her new situation as a challenge, and she likes challenges. The book is supposedly good, but what are the critics in relation to the movie? The film talks about the story of an orphan who suffers from some mental disabilities and doesn’t want to be adopted, causing much trouble, and burdening her friend ‘Pudding’ with them. But one day, her period of glory ends when she gets adopted by a strange woman and her strange husband. Turns out, they are a witch and a devil! How will Earwig deal with the situation when the witch obligates her to do tons of disgusting chores and not disturb her devil husband? Earwig in the film doesn’t have a character development. Neither does the film have a development. All the things that happen are supposed to connect to each other clarifying its backstory and its purpose, but it fails to do so. It seems like jigsaw pieces in a table, that don’t form a complete image. Why? Because it wastes time in scenes such as Erica’s obnoxious chores and then doesn’t have time to show her development with her later-called family. By its lack of time to show development, Erica seems spoiled and manipulative, so it fails to show Erica’s full charm and bravery as a powerful and insightful character grows. This was one of the main reasons this film is considered unsatisfactory. Studio Ghibli is mainly known for bringing the best out of simple things we usually don’t notice in our lives. Ponyo, and example, is enthusiastic about eating lamen, and it becomes a magical moment for a very simple thing. But Earwig and the Witch doesn’t show that magic. A few suggestions which could turn this good film into a great one is: If Erica turned her chores into fun games, or if she won over her adoptive parents by using her charms. Earwig and the Witch had much potential that some may argue wasn’t achieved. Time, in this movie, was not by its side, and it lacked the ability to develop the characters and the plot further. As a Studio Ghibli fan from my heart, I really wish to have seen more out of this movie. The movie might have caused people to perceive the book in a bad way, turning away possible new audiences as well. However, because of the critics maybe one day the movie will be re-done, and other opinions will formulate. But until then there are plenty of amazing Halloween-related movies to watch. By: J. Pastore Halloween is highly regarded as one of the most celebrated holidays, yet many don’t know the intricate story behind it. We all know it takes place on the 31st of October, but why specifically do we celebrate it at October’s end?
Let’s start at the beginning. Once recognized as a religiously symbolic holiday and now merely an emblem of pumpkin carving and trick or treating, Halloween traces back to its thousand-year-old origin at the Celtic festival of Samhain. On the day of November 1, the souls of the dead were believed to return to their homes, and the populace would dress in costumes to ward off these spiritual entities. Through this, the tradition of wearing costumes associated with goblins, zombies, ghosts, and witches was perpetuated. It was also popularly believed that the boundary between our world and the spiritual world became unusually thin, thus enabling communication between the living and the dead. The Celts were commonly known as being polytheistic, the belief in worshiping more than one God, in multiple deities, and it is for this reason that there are a myriad of early pagan holidays and ritualistic ceremonies. Moving forth to the 7th century CE, Pope Boniface came through with the creation of All Saints Day, a religious Christian holiday to be celebrated originally on May 13th, but which was later passed on to November 1st via Pope Gregory the 3rd (maybe referencing to the holiday of Samhain). The day before All Saint's Day, October 31st, was the day in which the evening mass was held: All Hallows Eve - Hallow meaning “holy” or “saint” (as a noun). Despite its pagan inception, Pope Gregory the 4th officiallyized the celebration of All Saint’s Day in the universal Christian Calendar a century after Pope Gregory the 3rd changed the holiday from May 13th to November 1st. Furthermore, the only remnants of the Celtic communities at the origin of Samhain are numbered artifacts, not any written records. The origins of the holiday, though very limited in its artifacts and having almost no written records, were first reported in the Celtic regions in Ireland, where it quickly spread to the countries of France and the United Kingdom shortly after. Irish immigrants fleeing after the events of the potato famine were custodians for the spread of Halloween in the 19th century and later in the 1800s, fall festivals in Southern colonies in the United States enjoyed the seasonal harvest that embodied Halloween traditions. As of the 21st century, Halloween is a global phenomenon and a universally celebrated holiday. By the conventions of the ancient pagan colonies, perpetuated through religious and then cultural communities and ideologies, its traditions live vicariously through us, believers, and celebrators. By: A. Bonde Halloween is very prevalent in the United States, Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. It is said to have its roots in the ancient Celtic holiday of Samhain. However, the celebration has become widely influential, and different cultures have embraced and modified it in distinctive ways.
In Ireland, Halloween is a celebration that signals the conclusion of harvest season and the start of winter. The night of October 31st was thought to have caused a blurring of the lines separating the living and the dead, allowing ghosts to roam freely. People dressed up and built bonfires to ward off evil spirits. Similar Celtic customs blended over ages with Christian and Roman influences in the United Kingdom to produce celebrations like apple bobbing, a divination(supernatural) game connected to the Roman cult of Pomona, the goddess of fruit trees. The origins of trick-or-treating can be traced back to a British and Irish custom known as "souling," in which the poor would go door-to-door and perform songs for the dead in return for food or cash. These practices changed and spread to North America, where they turned into the modern Halloween traditions that are followed and beloved until this day. Día de Los Muertos, a celebration that occurs in Mexico, can be considered a variation of Halloween where they honour the goddess Mictecacihuatl, also known as the Lady of the Dead, by ancient Mesoamerican societies including the Aztecs, and Toltecs. The celebrations were later modified and entwined with Catholicism following the arrival of the Spanish in the sixteenth century. The event now falls on All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Families prepare altars known as ofrendas for Día de Los Muertos, embellished with pictures, candles, calaveras de azúcar(sugar skulls), and souvenirs of the deceased. The idea is to greet the departed souls returning to this life so they can partake in the celebration and honour their lives. In addition to cleaning and decorating their loved ones' graves, families frequently have picnics at the gravesite where they exchange laughs, memories, and occasionally even musical selections. Halloween in the Philippines is a unique fusion of deeply rooted local rituals and Western influences, much like in Mexico. One important feature is the custom of "Undas" or "Arawngmga Patay" (Day of the Dead), when families go to graves to honour their deceased loved ones. This custom typically entails lighting candles, decorating, and cleaning the graves, and presenting flowers and prayers. Families get together to reconnect with previous generations by reminiscing and sharing memories about their loved ones. Furthermore, cities, especially in shopping centers and business districts, welcome commercialized, Westernized Halloween. Similar to Western cultures, costume parties and trick-or-treating are popular among kids and offer a joyful and lively experience. These practices honour both traditional and modern Halloween celebrations, representing the diverse cultural background of the Philippines. In conclusion, Halloween has grown beyond the US, Canada, Ireland, and the UK. Trick-or-treating and costume parties are celebrated worldwide, where each culture adds its own flair to the tradition. Mexico honours the fallen through the colourful Día de Los Muertos, while Ireland and the UK keep traditional practices like bonfires and apple bobbing. Inspired by native and Western influences, the Philippines blends tradition and commercial Halloween activities. These different versions reflect Halloween's cultural depth and flexibility worldwide, making it a beloved holiday to all. |
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