Is My Kid Misguided? Courtsey Halloween

 Pranam!! I have two kids. Elder one is studying in Class-II and younger one is in preschool. Few days back, I was surprised to hear the word " Halloween" from the mouth of my younger kid. He candidly told me that there is party called " Halloween" in his school and he needs to dress up in the costume of some 'Ghost'. what????..Yes, you read it correctly...costume of Ghost...in the evening another bomb was exploded on my head when my elder Son informed me that all of the kids in Clas-II have decided to host Halloween party on Friday i.e. today 4th Nov 2022 and that too at my residence.

      I recently heard this new festival which is being increasingly popular among younger generations. I have absolutely no idea about this festival. Whether it is new marketing tactics of costume manufacturer or something else? I tried to google it and found response as follows:

        "Halloween, in the modern world, is celebrated by dressing up as fictional characters, performing cosplay and stuffing oneself with candies and pumpkin pies. However, this dates back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain which was regarded as a harvest festival. Some theories suggest that the festival of Samhain has its roots in paganism. It was believed that on the day of Halloween, the lines between the living world and that of the dead would get blurred. Hence, the spirits would visit their loved ones. While some people prefer to decorate their homes and cook delicious dishes to welcome the spirits of their ancestors, they also try to ward away evil spirits by lighting bonfire and dressing up as demons and witches to avoid being recognized."

      After reading this explanation, I feel that it may be a local tradition somewhere in the world but amused the way it is being spread like a wildfire across our country. What can be the possible reasons behind it? I feel that if at all we need to dress up to celebrate this festival, then why can our kids wear the costume of Hanuman ji who are being regarded as the greatest witch or ghost hunter. Our hanuman chalisa says " Bhoot pisach nikat nahi aaven, mahaveer jab naam sunavein". 

      I discussed about this festival with my kids along with related stories in our scriptures. I feel that I was able to convince my kids that it is not the part of great traditions of our country and in case they want to dress up, they should emulate our heroes like Shri Ram or Hanuman ji or Shree Krishna. I feel that it is the responsibility of our generation or the parents to tell the great moral stories of Ramayana and Mahabharat so that kids don't get influenced by these transnational things. We have sufficient folklore or great stories to tell. We need to take pride in it. The problem is that we have forgotten the age-old traditions of Ramayana Path or Bhagwat Geeta path every day in our houses. The Gen-X has no idea about these great assets of our traditions because they have not seen anything regarding this that their parents are reading or talking about.