Halloween
or Hallowe’en (a contraction of “All Hallows’ Evening”), also known as
All Hallows’ Eve, is a yearly celebration observed in a number of
countries on October 31, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All
Hallows (or All Saints).
Typical festive Halloween
activities include trick-or-treating (also known as “guising”),
attending costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o’-lanterns,
lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing
pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.
According to many scholars, it was originally influenced by western
European harvest festivals and festivals of the dead with possible pagan
roots, particularly the Celtic Samhain. Others maintain that it
originated independently of Samhain and has Christian root as it is
thought to have been influenced by the Christian holy days of All
Saints’ Day (also known as All Hallows, Hallowmas or Hallowtide) on
November 1 and All Souls’ Day on November 2, which are a time for
honouring the saints and praying for the recently departed who had yet
to reach Heaven.
Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood however on Saturday condemned Halloween celebrations held in an Amman cafe as “Satanic” and homosexual, while a newspaper reported acts of vandalism at the party.
“We watched with disgust and shame last night [Friday] homosexual and
Satanic rituals in an Amman cafe,” the Brotherhood said in a statement
on its website.
“This presents a challenge to the values of the Jordanian people and
their Arab and Muslim identity, as well as a violation of religious
laws,” it added.
The group demanded that those who organised the party be tried for
the “grotesque act”, decrying that such events are allowed to go ahead
when the people are “stricken by poverty and amid political crises” in
Jordan.
Al Ghad newspaper, meanwhile, reported that violence broke out when
“angry youths tried to prevent the Halloween celebrations from taking
place” in the cafe in Amman.
It said they tried to storm the cafe, throwing stones and setting fire to property, causing a traffic jam until early Saturday.
Although poverty levels are running at 25 per cent in the desert
kingdom, several independent studies say its capital Amman is the most
expensive city in the Arab world.
