The meaning of Halloween comes from the phrase “All-Hallow Evening” or “All-Saints Evening”. It was a Cristian name imposed to every event that was held on these days. The original event, some say, was a gathering that happened long ago in the ancient Ireland. The name of this event was Samhaid, which comes from ancient Irish and means literally “end of the summer”. In this event, people would disguise and ask for food outside doors, acting as the spirits and fairies who, by the power of the day could come across to our world.
In fact, the event has a lot of crossover meanings. Romans take over Celtas, the empire falls, but new mixed “traditions” continue, and by the end of the day we don’t know exactly why we are doing this. But is tradition, and is fun. Although, one of the ancient meanings have been lost: the respect to the nature, and the fear for the Winter (cofwinteriscomingcof).
By contrast, we have Dia de Muertos, an event who has gained a lot of impact in the last few decades as a reaction to the mass imposing of Halloween in México. In this attempt, Halloween have been seen as a meaningless ludic event, in some cases, resembling a pagan tradition. And by some reason, “pagan” means worship to the devil, but not, really, pagan doesn’t mean that.
Actually, Halloween is not that different. The problem is that we simply do not question ourselves about what was his meaning. For a country so powerful, looks like it is a shame to admit that their traditions are the result of a melting pot. But it is not that bad, actually, it is a good point. It request to the people of that nation a better capacity to understand their past. The long journey of their beliefs and how now we can party disguised without fear, otherwise we should be gathering the cattle and storing the harvest.