The Start of the Holiday Season 

Post date: October 2, 2023

By Peter Wolff

As the once, ever so warm summer weather begins to recede, autumn has started to reveal its overarching facade in both the landscape and the atmosphere. It is with this new transition of seasons that carries the surplus of holidays around the globe, all with their own unique origins and traditions depending on the regional culture and cuisine. 

In October alone, over five different national external (In relation to the United States) holidays are celebrated. 

Oktoberfest

The earliest of these holidays, Oktoberfest, is celebrated in Germany which has a run time from late September into the early October weeks. Originally celebrated from mid - late October, Oktoberfest was originally designed to commemorate the large wedding banquet of late German Princess Therese to the Bavarian Prince Louis the first which was said to last two weeks. The dates of the celebration were later altered due in part to the poorer weather which October held. Today, the two week long festival is honored through the celebration of the German Cultures rich beer related history and is a safe haven for gathering and conversing with friends, families and colleagues.

Samhain, Pchum Ben and Chuseok

Towards the middle of October, three very similar events are held with the same purposes of remembering those who passed on, however they each have small adaptations. Samhain, Pchum Ben and Chuseok are all holidays with origins in Asia and Western Europe. Samhain, the earliest of the three, has its original ties to Ireland and Scotland where neighbors and relatives would dance into the late hours of the night to commemorate and comfort the dead. This is followed by Pchum Ben in Cambodia. On Pchum Ben, Cambodian citizens make balls of rice which they throw as high as they can into the cold and crisp air in order to make sure that the dead are well fed through the cold winter months. Towards the end of October, the ongoing three day Korean holiday of Chuseok manifests in which is typically accompanied by a large harvest feast to honor the relatives of the past.

Día de los Muertos

On October 31, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is held and is one of the largest celebrations of dead relatives which can often be found in Mexico and other Latin American Nations. On Día de los Muertos, sugar skulls, altars and decorated graves are an exceedingly common sight as they are used to show respect to the recently departed. Oftentimes, after the commemoration through the use of the altars families will gather in the later hours of the night to narrate fond memories of those that have been lost keeping their legacy and heritage alive.

Halloween

In the United States, the most popular October related holiday is Halloween. Kids  from all over the country migrate from house to house in search of sweet goods with the occasional scare or joke often with a costume that fits their personal preference. This tradition gets its earliest roots from the Samhain, with the key difference being that the goal of the new colonial settlers was to ward off evil spirits instead of commemorating the good ones often in masked apparel with a large bonfire often being located at the center of the village or town.