Brief look on Halloween~~

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
Coincidentally, Halloween is on the same date i schedule my posts and articles- so [of course] i felt the need to do my 2nd article on "Halloween in Japan" even though it's not actually till next week (though i didnt realize that till after i wrote this 800+ word article on the matter!)! Please be warned that i tend to stray of subjects so please check out paragraph 3 if you do not wish to be bored with the History behind this celebration though im sure the entire thing isnt too interesting.

For the majority of the world, Halloween is the time of year for superstitions and , yet originated as both the eve before the Christian feast of All Hallows/All Saints residing on the first day of November or the Gaelic festival, Samhain, which celebrates the end of the Harvest season and the beginning of Winter on the same day. Unlike the vastly popular traditions of Trick or Treating, which involves children of all ages knocking on the doors of each house they see whilst wearing fancy dress costumes, shouting "TRICK or TREAT", and receiving a sweet snack or money from the strangers of each house, many religious individuals take this time to perform a variety of peaceful ceremonies at the point of midnight on the 31st of October. My parents are proud Wiccans and perform their Samhain ceremony when the arrows of the clock reach the middle of the night period. Collecting their 5 candles, Altar, salt, and other wonderful obscurities to place in a pendant (star) shape. Do not
listen to the silly, but funny, stories of witches devouring the blood or flesh of young virgins as this ceremony requires merely the feast of the cooked animal meat of your choice (i believe), fruit/vegetables, and a glass of cider or wine. This date is not meant for summoning evil spirits or being taken over by the devil, but a moment to honour both the goddess of nature (Mother Earth) and respect the spirits of all those who respectfully passed away.

Why am i telling you this? you may ask. Well, just like Christmas, Halloween has never really caught on in Japan as Japan, and the majority of Asia, are not that attuned to the more religious practice's from Western countries. As this year's calendar portrays Boxing Day on the day i publish my "normal" articles (Friday), i will be explaining the celebrations featured on Christmas Day in Japan.....

*ahem* Moving on....
Due to the over-populated cities of Asia, its undoubtedly unpopular to go knocking on strangers doors for trick or treating and asking for tooth-decaying-ly sweets. That does not mean, however, that the other Western traditions concerning Halloween are not addressed. The acts of dressing up and partying have grown to become greatly popular throughout the pop culture and younger generations.











In fact, every year since its opening in 1983, Tokyo's Disneyland in Chiba Prefecture (yes-you heard that; TOKYO's Disney Land in CHIBA PREFECTURE) has held spectacular halloween events full of Jack-o-lanterns, ghostly attractions, and the colorfully eye-catching Halloween-themed 7 float parade!
The Tokyo DisneySea resort (once again, in Chiba Prefecture!) also holds its own short, but equally unique, 25 minute 1920 Halloween-themed event which [of course] includes skeletons and Mickey Mouse dancing around amongst other events!

Through the more recent years (especially from 2012), halloween has become increasingly popular-mostly due to the growing western influence and the amazing world of THE INTERNET *heavenly music plays*.


Lalalalalala-Halloween Party!~~

To me, the best halloween-related act in Japan, would be rock band VAMPS' exciting "Halloween Party's" and Halloween Junky Orchestra (VAMPS' music collaboration with anyone-who is anyone-). Although the Halloween Party's are not currently accessible to anyone outside of Japan, The Halloween Junky Orchestra super group has been awesome enough produce a hit song which debuted at no.3 in the Oricon Charts upon it's release on October 17th, 2012!



YOKAI 
Yokai, aka. the strange-looking ghosts, monsters, ghouls, demons and trolls featured in the folklores of ancient Japan. There are many variations of Yokai and some have even been described as "indescribable".  As i'm experiencing a large brain fart due to the amount i could write on this subject, here are 2 of the variants most commonly examined throughout these tales;

SHINIGAMI

If you've ever watched the amazingly world-wide hit manga/anime and live action (anime/manga films with characters played by real humans in the real world-obviously-), DEATH NOTE, or other hit series' such as BLEACH, Soul Eater, Black Butler,  or NARUTO, you'll probably be very familiar with this word. However, if you have not heard about these series', the term 'Shinigami' is used as the, often devilish, God of Death(s) which normally are portrayed as creatures who try to lure humans towards the afterlife or death -wait! Is there a difference?-.

ONI

No...not related to the delicious triangular rice snack, Onigiri [surprisingly]- Oni often describes the evil troll or ogre like demons. Before taking on this image, Oni were mostly noted for being invisible ghosts who deceived and devoured humans- hence their name which derives from the Chinese character '隠' (meaning on'yomi or Conceal).

I will be writing more at one stage-but or now, i must end this blog and save the endless more topics (like expanding on everything i've written) for future articles and try to stick to my post schedule (the new NIHONGO series has taken over my life O_O so i rushed this article)...

Sayonara Guys!

gif by muddy-mudkip.deviantart.com