October 31 · 10月31日
Halloween: a Celtic fire festival that went to America and came back louder
万圣节前夜：一个凯尔特火焰祭典，去了美国又更热闹地回来
Samhain, turnip lanterns, and how Britain re-imported its own festival with an American accent.
萨温节、萝卜灯，以及英国如何带着美国口音，把自己的节日重新“进口”回来。
Halloween's roots go back to Samhain, an ancient Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest and the point when, it was believed, the boundary between the living and the dead grew thin. Christianity later folded it into All Hallows' Eve, the night before All Saints' Day — hence the name. Long before pumpkins, people in Ireland and Scotland carved lanterns out of turnips to ward off wandering spirits.
万圣节前夜的根源可以追溯到古凯尔特人的萨温节（Samhain），这是标志丰收季结束的节日，古人相信在这一天，生者与死者之间的界限会变得模糊。基督教后来将其并入“诸圣节前夜”（All Hallows' Eve，即万圣节前一晚），节日名称由此而来。早在南瓜灯出现之前，爱尔兰和苏格兰人就已经用萝卜雕刻灯笼，以驱赶四处游荡的亡灵。
The costumes-and-trick-or-treating version familiar today largely developed among Irish and Scottish emigrants in 19th and 20th century America, then was re-exported back to the UK through film and TV from the 1980s onward — meaning modern British Halloween is, in a real sense, an old British festival returning home after two centuries abroad, considerably louder and full of plastic pumpkins.
如今我们熟悉的化装、挨家挨户讨糖的形式，主要是19世纪至20世纪，爱尔兰和苏格兰移民在美国逐渐发展而成的，此后自20世纪80年代起，又通过电影和电视被重新“出口”回英国——从这个意义上说，今天英国的万圣节前夜，其实是一个古老的本土节日，在海外漂泊了两个世纪后归来，只是变得响亮了许多，还多了不少塑料南瓜。
Seen from the other side · 换个角度看
China's closest cultural cousin isn't in this calendar, but is worth knowing: the Hungry Ghost Festival, in the seventh lunar month, shares Samhain's premise that spirits cross over into the world of the living. Where Halloween has become playful and commercial, the Ghost Festival stays solemn — the goal is appeasing and respecting wandering spirits, not dressing up as one.
在中国文化中，与之最相近的其实并不在这份节日日历里，但值得一提：农历七月的中元节（俗称“鬼节”），同样建立在“亡灵会跨入人间”这一前提之上。不同的是，万圣节前夜逐渐变得轻松而商业化，而中元节则始终保持肃穆——其核心是安抚与敬畏游荡的亡灵，而不是把自己打扮成其中一员。