Halloween Impacts to the West and East Countries - Coursework Example

HALLOWEEN IMPACTS TO THE WEST AND EAST COUNTRIES Name Code & Course Professor’s name University City Date 1.0 History of Halloween Around 2,000 years ago, a group known as Celts across the North Eastern section of Europe used to held sacred religious practices on the night of 31st October to celebrate the upcoming New Year, thus 1st of November (Denault 2003). The ritual celebration was known as Samhain. The Celts held Samhain celebrations in believe that the spirits of the dead comes back to the earthly realm and could potentially cause catastrophes. As such, it was believed that Samhain celebrations were held so that the priests known as Druids were able to communicate with the dead so as to predict the outcome of the New Year accurately. For Celts, 31st of October was a matter of life and death. This time of the year implied the end of summer and the beginning of the winter calendar. Celts summer was the end of the harvest season while the winter was well known as a harsh climatic condition and few of Celts could survive. It is in this retrospect that the Celts had to look up to their priest so as to help them get an insight on what to expect on the coming New Year. In this context, the samhain celebrations implied that the priests and the Celts were to lit bonfire and burn crops and animals as a means of sacrifice to purposefully appease the gods for a successful new year. The chosen crops and animals for sacrificial were perceived not to survive of the harsh winter climate. The Samhain celebrations showcased the Celts lavish costumes designed mainly from animal’s skins and heads. At around 43 A.D, the Romans conquered the Celts; hence the Celts traditions were likely to change (BBC 2014). The Romans had to combine both their traditions and those of Celts almost at the same time. The Romans traditions known as Feralia, in remembrance of the dead, lasted towards the end of October. Additionally, Romans had a second celebration known as goddess Pomona. Goddess Pomona celebrations was associated with fruits and trees. The main identifying symbols was the use of Apples, which further gives an explanation as to why the contemporary society in Halloweens gathering people bob for Apples. With the introduction of the three traditional celebrations, the celebrations on November 1st were deemed as All Saint’s Day (Catholic Online 2016). The day allowed each cultural community to practice its identity cultural celebrations. Contrarily, most people decided to maintain the 31st October practices in the ancient ways of the ancestors. This was given the name Halloween. In this context, this retrospect paper seeks to give an in depth analysis of the Halloween impacts in United States of America, Hong Kong and Japan. The in depth analysis tends to showcase both the positive and negative impacts of Halloween celebration across countries ranging from economic, consumerism, crime, eco-fashion, stock market and, social indulgence. Additionally, the paper entails a reflection of the in depth analysis. 2.0 Western’s impacts Economic Potential of Halloween In 2009, United States of America consumers spent around 5.8 billion USD on Halloween (Strielkowski 2014). Such an outcome indicates that Halloween pose a major shift in stoke exchange after a major stagnation during summer holidays. The marketing potential of Halloween is attributed to the diverse activities that people engage into. Between 2005 to 2013, the traditional activities entailing Halloween such as curving pumpkins, throwing Halloween parties, fashion costume dressing and parents taking the children to trick-or-treating , all this has increased from 20% to 40 % in U.S.A (American Dental Association 2012). To single out a specific case study, the curving of pumpkins showcases how marketing strategies are employed so as to increase the sales of grown products. In 2012, a nearly 12 Million centum weight of pumpkins was harvested purposefully for Halloween activities. With an average price of centum of pumpkin at about 12 USD in 2012, the total representation of pumpkin sells more than 147 Millions USD, up from 112 million in the year 2011. Additionally, findings indicate that more Americans are increasingly engaging into Halloween celebrations thus a 65% increase in 2013 from a 52 % in 2005. The increasingly participants basically spend in Halloween decorations and costumes of up to 4 billion USD in 2015 (Erb 2016 ). Halloween products vastly appear in majority of the Stores in U.S.A at the end of summer and can last up to 4 months in stores. As such, the Halloween celebrations can be compared to Christmas festive season, hence an Economic Potential to United States of America. Consumerism Halloweens popular celebration culture in U.S.A has spearheaded the growth of consumerism in acquisition of increasing varieties of goods and services. Halloween is closely associated with the American lifestyle that generally focuses on clothing, gadgets and spending on leisure. As advertisements continue to stimulate consumers in purchasing the latest model products, Halloween has impacted the Americans to seek self-fulfillment and status by purchasing specific materials items during Halloween celebrations (Treacy 2014). The dependence of specific products and its consumption tend to define the consumer satisfactions during the Halloween celebrations in U.S.A. Basically, the Halloweens culture through the young stars continues to shape the Halloweens consumer culture in U.S.A. Contrarily, the Halloweens consumer culture has been extensively criticized as a dizzy cycle of induced desire whereby it seems to erode the traditional values of having Halloweens celebrations. Despite this, the continuous mass production of Halloweens products has allowed more American people to enjoy the celebrations more comfortably and have the ability to attain a sense of style during the celebrations. Chances of Crime Halloween celebration has impacted the American society with an increasingly level of crimes. Arsons are one of the most reported crimes in each Halloween celebrations yearly (West Yorkshire Police 2016). Though the retail industry is well known to greatly participate in Halloween activities, majority of the U.S.A police officers and insurance companies are dread of Halloween festivities. Reflections Generally, Halloween festive showcases both the negative and positive sides in the current modern society. Halloween has managed to show an enormous marketing potential across the U.S.A market. From the economic perspective, the economic crisis doesn’t seem to affect the financial spending volumes across the American people. Due to the growing percentage of individuals participating in Halloween celebrations ad the Billions of USD used during Halloween, Halloween can be perceived to be one of the American Holidays that retailers need to focus too if interested in increasing sales and production in their stores. Currently U.S.A is a cross cultural society that is embedded with diversified cultural groups. Due to different cultural practices, conflicts in cultural practices are most likely to arise due to different racial communities. As such, Halloween among other cultural practices is most likely to interfere with the smooth running of society. In this aspect, promoting Halloween modern practices needs to fuse easily with other diverse groups so that the society creates a cross-cultural functioning relationship. One of the aspects is to produce costumes that are closely correlated to the diversified cultures of different racial communities. Additionally, it is being reported that Halloween celebrations comes in hardy with crimes of violence across U.S.A towns. This might be due to poor policing strategies across areas where festive are held or due to lack of ignorance. Crimes of violence among other crimes are against the society norms hence its continuous practice might affect the value of Halloween across U.S.A. Since Halloween defines the American traditional practices, it calls for urgent police reformed structures that are able to eradicate the crime rate associate with Halloweens celebrations. 3.0 Hong Kong impacts Halloween Eco-Fashion Context Hong Kong is best known for a robust growth in fashion industry. The fashion industry comprises top tier brand, middle tier brands and up to street vendor clothing. This has position Hong Kong fashion industry to be a multi-billion dollar industry that specializes in seasonal production cycles (Goodall 2016). In this context, the fashion trend tends to change in every season especially during festive seasons. Due to massive production of clothes in clothing industry, Halloween festivals have been used in Hong Kong to raise public awareness on consumerism, wastage and pollution that always arise from the manufacturing process in fashion industry and the overall negative production from clothing industry globally. It is worthy noting that culturally, the Halloween participants tend to use one time clothing that are disposed hence creating more unnecessary waste within the environment. In this context, the Halloween Eco-Fashion Context is used to showcase creativity of outfits that are eco-friendly to the environment. Therefore, it can be argued that when Hong Kong engages into Halloween celebrations, the event is turned into an eco-friendly event hence managing the environmental condition of Hong Kong. Social Indulgence Halloween festival in Hong Kong has greatly contributed towards social indulgence through parties, food and shows across Hong Kong. Halloween is attributed towards satisfying the Hong Kong need for escapism and individuals feeling cozy across the crowd. Weeks in advance to Halloween festivals, costume planning is showcased across retails shops that are to be dressed during the Halloween parties. The party itself features a lot of shoving through crowd traffic, streets and joint specifically for entertainment. People tend to come together and indulge into social activities such as taking photo and adoring individual costumes among other factors (CNNGo 2010). The food industry is best known for producing Halloween foods with gimmicks such as the famous pumpkin-themed meals. Additionally, the Disneyland land tends to promote spooky dishes during Halloween food production. Lastly, individuals tend to participate in shows whereby scary movies, stories and music are showcased as part of the historical traditions of Halloween. In this context, social indulgence has contributed towards strengthening Hong Kong social relationships across Hong Kong diverse cultures. In this retrospect, the participants come together irrespective of racial background, political differences and economic status by enjoying together the Halloween festivities. Stock Market Traditional and modern festivals across countries tend to have an impact in stock markets. In Hong Kong, the Halloween celebrations showcase monthly stock improvements that are presumed to be due to the country calendar effect. One of the most common observed calendar effects in Hong Kong is the Halloween celebrations. In Hong Kong the stock market tend to use the saying “Sell in May and go away” which specifically implies that the Hong Kong stock market returns are significantly lower from the months of October up to May. From the month of November up to April the stock market returns are on the rise, worth noting that the month of November holds the Halloween celebrations (Lean 2011). Findings indicated that a significant 10% growth is observed during the month of November to April, in comparison than in the Month of October to May (Chan 2015). In this retrospect, the “Sell in May and go away” remains the relevant cliché in business industry across Hong Kong especially on factors related to the stock market. As such, the argument indicates that Halloween celebrations contribute towards the economic growth of Hong Kong among other diversified festivals and business actors. Reflection Halloween in Hong Kong comes in handy across institutional sectors across the country. Though Halloween is a traditional celebration, Halloween in Hong Kong has been modernized in some way to promote some of the challenges that are greatly encountered across the countries. For Hong Kong, Halloween celebrations have been used to promote the eco-friendly costumes that once disposed, that costume doesn’t have an impact towards the natural environment. A working social community spearheads the peace environment across the countries. Halloween celebrations pose a positive impact towards a sociable community whereby Hong Kong citizens and visitors tend to come together during the month of Halloween and celebrate together irrespective of the individual differences. Such an outcome has contributed towards improving the social environment for the country hence a peaceful environment for its citizens and visitors such as the tourist. Economically, Halloween celebrations impact positively the economic situation of Hong Kong. The country stock market tends to grow during the month of Halloween whereby the consumer purchase power of Halloween products is on the rise hence an economic growth. 4.0 Japan Globalization Economic Effect In Japan, Halloween is held on the 31st of October known as Japanese Halloween day. Basically, in Japan, the Halloween holiday is showcased by all kinds of costumes and the sharing of sweets across the streets by the people of Japan. Japan becomes globalized yearly due to newly settlement of the other cultural groups. It is through Japan kindergartens and high schools that the diverse culture is incorporated little by little in the country. In is in this retrospect that Halloween was spread by SNS and the event skyrocketed into Japans territory. In Japan the Halloween culture was greatly influenced by the American culture. In 2013, the Japan Halloween pose a record of 60 billion while it is attributed that from 2015 the Halloween economic effect is expected to double up, to more than 110 billion. The analysis is argued based on the current potential growth of Halloween due to its celebrations that are known to be open-ended. Unlike some of the festivals like Christmas that has already saturated in Japan, Halloween continues to showcase its ability of developing into the market of festivities. Insecurity One of the great focuses in Halloween parties is the aspect of “trick or treating”. Trick or treating entails individuals going to peoples house to trick or treat by accumulating the mass quantities of product such as candy. The trick and treat in Japan has been associated with the negative outcomes such as robbery with violence. The evil minded people in Japan take the advantage of trick and treating by visiting people house without consents. It is through the visitation that individuals are most likely to plan for robbery especially when expensive and flashy products come to their sight. As such, during the months of Halloween, the festival positions the country security to be vulnerable hence cases of violence are most likely to be on the rise. It is in this context that the Halloween celebration impacts Japan negatively towards aspect related community good securities. Commercialism and Costumes The appeal of Halloween in Japan basically focuses on two things, thus the commercialism and Costumes (Lanken 2015). Ethnic communities such as Harajuku and Otaku in Japan are in the idea of dressing up to look very appeal hence an aspect of commercialism. As such, business entities such as retailers and the manufactures have managed to find a novel market in Japan whereby well designed Halloween costumes can easily be purchased at higher quantities. Though Halloween commercialism is well known to be a seasonal business, its outcome has contributed towards improving the economic position of Japan both in public and private sectors. Enforcing the Gender Roles Halloween celebration tends to enforce Japan genders role (Kincaid 2013). The evidence of enforcing the gender roles is best known by the showcased costumes that are available for different gender and age groups across Japan communities. Halloween costumes in Japan has been segregated into three basic groupings thus from two to four years, five to eight years and the pre-teens. The designed costumes are strictly gender and sex sensitive for the purchasers. The costumes have a written name either as male or female, boy or girl purposefully to alert the consumers purchasing the product. It is from the Halloween costumes that spearhead the Japans society norms whereby individuals are informed of society norms by purchasing Halloween products. As such, Halloween spearheads the cultural setting of Japan by observing the societal roles such as gender. Reflection Halloween in Japan pose both positive and negative aspects in the contemporary society. It is through globalization that Japan had to introduce Halloween and it was well embedded across other traditional practices such as Christmas. Contrarily to the economic development of Japan due to Halloween festivals, the celebrations continue to pose security weaknesses to the Japan people during the months of Halloween. The trick and treat traditions whereby people use masks while moving from house to house has showcased robbery with violence across homes and public facilities. Based on Japan contemporary society, it can be argued that contrarily to the traditional practices associated with Halloween, the festivals are being used as an institutional agent in promoting the society norms. Parents and Children are easily educated of the gender roles when moving from one retails to another while searching for Halloween costumes. The costumes have a tag indicating the intended purpose of the product once purchased. As such, the Halloween festivals spur the enforcing of the gender roles in communities across Japan. 5.0 Reflection The discussions indicate that Halloween was greatly associated as a cultural practice from the people at the northern side of America. Due to globalization, findings indicate that Halloween has been greatly embedded to the Southern side of Europe in Asia such as Hong Kong and Japan. Though globalization has enabled Halloween to spread across different countries, the outcome showcases negative aspects of its globalization. Halloween festivals were greatly associated with cultural prayers to the Gods to seek sympathy during the harsh conditions of summer for community survival. In the current modern society, communities have position Halloween activities as a means of commercialization where individuals sell Halloween products purposefully for business purposes. In this context, it can be argued that the main intended purpose of having Halloween celebration is being washed away hence in future the festivity is likely to loose its main intended meaning and purpose. Different countries indulge into Halloween activities. The outcomes of Halloween celebrations tend to share similar outcomes and various differences from the celebration of Halloween. Findings from U.S.A, Hong Kong and Japan showcase that both countries economic level tend to grow during the month of November to April, a duration associated with Halloween celebrations. Additionally, in U.S.A and Japan, crime level are expected to be on the rise during this festivities whereby individuals take advantage of the “trick & treat” by wearing masks and indulge into crimes with violence. As such, it can be presumed that the more Halloween is globalized across countries; it is likely that the crime rates will be on the rise. Conclusively, it can be argued that Halloween is increasingly growing across countries that are embedded with different cultures. Diversified culture responses can either involve the welcoming or rejecting of the Halloween practices. Though the contemporary society tends to used different purpose in promoting Halloween, it can be recommended for learning institutions across the society to educate and remind its people on the intended purposes of Halloween so that its celebrations can be aligned to its meaning. Some of the countries to target are the U.S.A and Japan which entails diversified cultural settings due to increasingly number of the immigrants with different cultural practices. References List American Dental Association. (2012). Halloween Consumer Study. Available at: www.infosolutionsgroup.com/halloweenconsumerstudy_children.pdf. 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Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2015/10/26/halloween-spending-to-top-6-9-billion-in-2015-filling-sales-tax-coffers/#30929d264a93. (Accessed: 14 November 2016). Goodall, J. (2016). Halloween Eco-Fashion Contest. Available at: http://www.janegoodall.org.hk/halloween-ecofashion-show-2016/. (Accessed: 14 November 2016). Kincaid, C. (2013). A Look at Gender Expectations in Japanese Society. Available at: http://www.japanpowered.com/japan-culture/a-look-at-gender-expectations-in-japanese-society. (Accessed: 14 November 2016). Lanken, K. (2015). Halloween in Japan: What Different? What’s Not? Available at: https://blog.gaijinpot.com/halloween-in-japan/. (Accessed: 14 November 2016). Lean, H. (2011) ,, The Halloween Puzzle in Selected Asian Stock Markets. “International Journal of Economics and Management 5(1), 216. Strielkowski, W. (2014) ,, Marketing Potential of Halloween for Retailers and Consumers. “ World Applied Sciences Journal 31(5), 873. Treacy, R. (2014). Record Number of Americans to Buy Halloween Costumes. Available at: https://nrf.com/media/press-releases/record-number-of-americans-buy-halloween-costumes. (Accessed: 14 November 2016). West Yorkshire Police. (2016). West Yorkshire Police and West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue urge Residents to Celebrate Halloween Safely. Available at: https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/news/west-yorkshire-police-and-west-yorkshire-fire-and-rescue-urge-residents-celebrate-halloween-saf. (Accessed: 29 November 2016). Read More