Adrienne Middlebrook
In Focus

Halloween isn’t always celebrated with candy, costumes and jack-o-lanterns. Celebrations for the holiday vary by country and culture— some don’t celebrate at all.
“This is my first Halloween ever,” said Amity Chhabra, 21, a Humber international student from India. “In my culture we don’t celebrate Halloween at all, so I’m very excited to see what it’s like.”
In North America and the United Kingdom, Halloween is predominately celebrated by dressing up in costumes, carving pumpkins and going trick-or-treating.
Halloween was popularized by immigrants from Europe in the mid-1800s. Traditions included celebrating the fall harvest and sharing stories about the dead.
“In Mexico, the first two days of November are dedicated to remembering the dead,” said Adriana Perez Rocha, a business management student from Mexico. “We’re aware of North American Halloween but it’s not as widely celebrated.”
Other Halloween variations are celebrated around the world, but with a twist.
“Back home we celebrate Halloween by dressing up in what you feel brings out the monster in you,” said Tashana Gordon, a second-year nursing student from Jamaica. “Halloween is popular in Jamaica but still less than half the population celebrates it.”
Similar traditions are celebrated throughout the world, but not on Oct. 31.
“In a part of India we celebrate something called the Lohri festival in January,” said first year multimedia student Balraj Singh. “Children go door to door and sing songs in exchange for sweets.”
Jorge Condova, a graphic design student from Peru, said, “In Peru, a lot of people don’t celebrate Halloween because of a conservative president we had in the 1970s who was against American holidays.”
“It’s now celebrated through a national day where people dance and sing traditional Peruvian songs.”