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Halloween in Tokyo pictures -
10-31-2007, 05:15 AM
Halloween is a holiday growing in popularity in Japan. Here are some pictures of the Omotesando Harajuku halloween pumpkin parade 2007. The parade is one of the biggest halloween events in Tokyo. Many cute Japanese children dress up in costumes to join the parade.
     There are about 100 pictures in the Tokyo Halloween 2007 gallery. 
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10-31-2007, 05:33 AM
Gotta love the Wii kid.
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10-31-2007, 06:02 AM
As cute as Japanese kids are in costumes, I am beginning to hate Halloween. As an English teacher, I have had to give so many lessons about pumpkins and mummies that I think I will spontaneously combust if I say Jack-o-Lantern one more time. Better yet, if I get the question, "Why do you say Jack?" one more time I will freak out. How the hell would I know? It's a common name. Why does it matter? It just sounds nice!! Better than Tim-o-Lantern or Mary-o-Lantern.
Did you know Halloween started in Ireland? I didn't, nor did I care to know either. But now I have to have the answer. What was really fun, explaining to people that Halloween used to be a religious event and like many religious events in Western culture we turn them into a mockery of what they were intended to be. Think of Santa and the f'ing Easter Bunny. Then they ask me why people go trick or treating and I am like, well, because it's what we do. It's like you throwing beans at demons during that holiday I don't remember the name of. We figure if we feed the little devils they'll leave us alone. Being a cutural ambassador seriously sucks some time. But, I did enjoy scaring little kids. That was awesome.
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10-31-2007, 06:25 AM
Been there, Jason. When I taught in Japan it seemed like most of October was dedicated to lessons on Halloween.
That would be like spending 4 weeks in a Japanese class on Obon.
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10-31-2007, 09:19 AM
That wii kid is absolutely awesome... :O
Thankyou for posting the pics!  They kinda make me want to celebrate halloween in Japan... xD Not that we actually celebrate halloween here... I've never gone trick or treating in my life D: Hope to someday though ^_~
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10-31-2007, 09:55 AM
The origin of Halloween goes way back to the ancient celtic festival of Samhain (wiccans or witches, whichever you prefer, still celebrate this feast, so me 2).
It's was the celtic new year, the end of the summer and the beginning of a long, cold and dark winter. The celts believed that on the night of Samhain the souls of the death returned to the earth and they want to cause trouble. People thought that the souls could posess their bodies and they started to wear old and dirty clothes to scare the souls off(The first Halloween costumes!). Romans conquered the celtic territory and they combined two festivals with the celtic Samhain. The first feast was Feralia, which was for the people wo have died during the year and the second feast was in honor of the godess Pomona. She was the Roman Godess of fruit and the trees. Her symbol was the apple (one of the many games is trying to get apples out of the water without using your hands!). But then Christianity came (oooh i hate it  ) and a pope decided that the 1th november should be called All Saints day... And the night before All-hallows eve (eventually it was called halloween).------------------------------- The Jack-'o-lantern comes from an irish myth about a man called stingy Jack. So this guy, Stingy Jack, invited the devil to have a drink with him, but the guy never paid his drinks and he convinced the devil to turn himself into a coin to pay the drinks. But when the devil changed into the coin Jack decided not to pay anyway and he put the coin (devil) in his pocket next to a silver cross, the devil couldn't change back because of the cross. Jack freed the devil at last but under the condition that the devil would leave him alone for 1 year and that when jack died he wouldn't touch his soul. The next year the devil came back and jack tricked him again, he asked the devil to get a piece of fruit up in a tree and when the devil was up there he carved a cross in the tree so the devil couldn't come out, so he helped the devil out of the tree but the devil had to leave him alone again for ten years now. Jack finally died but God didn't alow him to enter heaven and the devil kept his word he didn't want jacks soul. So jack was doomed to wander in the dark forever with only a burning coal to light his path, eventuelly he put the coal into a pumpkin and jack-'o-lantern was born !!!! Man i never wrote this much in my life  Hope you enjoyed reading this, it ain't copied a wrote it myself, cus i know alot of those stories. I'm a wiccan so i'm interested in those myths  
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