I'm sure everyone knows what Halloween is and how people usually celebrate it: dress up in scary (or not so scary) costumes, children go from house to house asking for sweets, nearly every house is decorated with attributes of evil spirits - cobwebs, spiders, blood spots and, of course, pumpkins with a frightful grimace. In Russia we don't celebrate this event. Yes, we have a few Halloween party at some clubs with costumes and everything, but they are popular only with young people. We don't have a culture of celebrating it, we don't have thematic goods in shops that are symbolised this festival, but... Finland has! So we were interested how people celebrate Halloween here.
Halloween, like Father's Day, Valentine's Day, has come to Finland from America in the last century and, as known, is celebrated from October 31 to November 1. However, in Suomi, in pagan times existed a Halloween-like holiday - Kekri Day, which took place on 1st November. Kekri was the Karelian God of the harvest, the patron of cattle. So it was till the 18th century. When Catholicism became the dominant religion in Finland, the pagan holidays, including Kekri, were gradually forgotten and the holiday became known as "All Saints' Day" (Pyhäinpäivä) and is now celebrated on the first Sunday of November. In 1955, the holiday was moved from Sunday to the first Saturday of November, and since then it is celebrated on this day.
All Saints' Day is a calm and quiet holiday, when candles are lit in all houses. According to legends, the relatives and friends who had gone, having seen the light from the heavens in the houses, could smile and come over, and the evil force would only be scared off by the lights. And, of course, the Finns usually go to the cemetery to honour the memory of the dead.
Thus, in Finland people celebrate two similar holidays - Halloween and Pyhäinpäivä. Considering that the date for Pyhäinpäivä differs from year to year, there can be a week gap between these celebrations. Thus parties devoted to them can take place through the whole week.
Several weeks before the holidays you can notice the special goods are begun to appear in shops. You can see scary masks, costumes, utensils, things for make-up, candles, candies and Jack's pumpkins! These all look so nice that you really want to join and feel it all yourself!
Although we don't celebrate Halloween in Russia, me and my friend have bought cute garland lights with pumpkins and bats, so we will bring a piece of the celebration home^^