Come and See Halloween in Australia: Taking Kids Trick-or-Treating

Halloween falls on November 1st each year, but Halloween night (October 31st) is the most lively day. Children carry jack-o'-lanterns and wear all sorts of strange costumes, going door to door asking for candy.

Witnessing such an event in person for the first time felt truly novel. People dress up in bloody, terrifying images and display various zombie poses at their doorsteps—scenes you simply don't see back home.

Foreigners celebrate Halloween by putting all kinds of monsters and ghosts right at their front doors…

Every year on October 31st, it's Halloween in Australia. On this day, children put on all kinds of weird and wonderful costumes, carry small buckets, and go door to door asking for candy. If they don't get any, they play tricks. The "trick-or-treat" custom in Australia is only observed by some children. Australians who prepare candy will place orange balloons or other decorations in front of their houses so that children participating in trick-or-treating know there is candy without having to knock.

The origin of Halloween: In the 5th century BC, the Celts living in Ireland designated October 31st as the end of summer, also symbolizing the end of the year. They believed that on the eve of the transition between the old and new years, all laws of time and space would temporarily pause, and the gate to the spirit world would open that night, allowing all ghosts to roam the earth, seeking suitable bodies to take over and thus gain a chance to be reborn.

Therefore, to avoid becoming targets of ghosts, the Celts would extinguish the fires in their homes that night, pretending no one was home.

At the same time, they would wear ferocious masks and dress up as ghosts and monsters, parading through the streets, creating a noisy and clamorous atmosphere to drive away those wandering spirits. This is the origin of most Westerners today celebrating Halloween in grotesque costumes.

In traditional Halloween, people would dress up as spirits and go from house to house asking for food. Their belief was to worship and offer food to the spirits to appease them, otherwise the spirits would play tricks on them.

To this day, on Halloween night, children carry jack-o'-lanterns and wear all sorts of strange costumes, going door to door asking for candy, repeatedly saying, "Trick or Treat." If you don't give candy, the children will get angry and punish you in various ways.

Halloween trick-or-treating in Australia is one of children's favorite holidays every year. Today, for the first time, I took my granddaughter trick-or-treating. Following the trick-or-treating group, we went door to door asking for candy, experiencing Halloween in Australia. Many houses were decorated with great thought and fun.