Nigerians have surprisingly shown a growing interest in the holiday of Halloween with terms like, ‘When is Halloween?’, ‘Halloween meaning’ and ‘History of Halloween’ topping Google Search queries in the week leading up to 31 October 2021.
Halloween, regarded as a Western tradition, is celebrated each year on 31 October in the United Kingdom (UK), Ireland, Scotland, United States of America and various European countries.
The word ‘Halloween’ comes from All Hallows’ eve and means ‘hallowed evening’. The tradition has an ancient Celtic origin. Pope Gregory III in the eighteenth century made 1st November, ‘All Saints day’, a time to honour saints.
All Saints day then integrated some of the Celtic tradition to pay homage to saints. The evening before was known as All Hallows Eve.
Halloween is marked as a holiday around the world with a growing popularity among young adults interested in costume parties and who are social media enthusiasts.
During Halloween, people dress up as their favourite celebrities or movie characters. Homes are decorated as scary haunted houses in spooky themes and children go from house to house to get candy or sweets, referred to as trick or treating.
As the holiday gathers global popularity, Nigerians have also shown greater interest, and searched for Halloween costumes during the period in review with Squid Game costume, Cinderella costume and Father Christmas costume taking the top three spots as Nigerians prepared for Halloween.
