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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UWindsor chapter.

With the Halloween holiday coming  up in Western culture, I thought that it would be beneficial for me to trace back my roots and discuss my own experience with spirits. I come from an African household, and my experience with Halloween  drastically changed throughout the years. Halloween is  a Western holiday with its extravagant costumes, free candy, common pranks, and ghostly ambiance . It is the one time a year where people can dress up without any judgment and kids can take candy from strangers. Its historical roots come from an ancient religious Celtic festival called Samhain, modern-day  Ireland. The concept  of this festival was that, during this time, souls of the dead would return to the homes in which they lived when they were alive. In order to ward off the spirits, people had to dress up in costumes. 

I  come  from an African household, with one parent born in The Republic of Benin and the other in America. My parents  were both quite tentative about me  celebrating Halloween, but they didn’t really have a choice, considering that we celebrated it in school. After I begged and pleaded with my parents to let me participate in both the school activities and the personal activities (such as trick or treating), they finally allowed me to participate. There were rules, though. 

  • No playing severe pranks on anyone; so no tricking, just treating.
  • No ghoulish costumes; in their opinion, vampires were allowed because they didn’t exist.
  • All candy is acceptable  but must be ‘checked’ by my parents; even if that meant that they took some pieces away

At a young age, I was only  permitted  to trick or treat with my family  or in large groups of friends. As  I got older, I had the opportunity to hang out more with my friends. This new method of celebrating Halloween meant watching Americanized horror movies or telling ghost stories. Being that most of my friends were Tumblr  kids, the stories were a bit more paranormal than the usual true crime stories (which I could survive).

One thing I noticed while living this Westernized life was that my cousins had a completely different Halloween experience than I did. For one, they did not play around with the idea of telling ghost stories. It wasn’t meant to be a fun thing, but more of a warning. As opposed to ghosts being their worry, it was the idea of spirits. As West Africans with roots from Benin, for them,  it was more common to treat spirits with reverence than with jokes. 

“Bottom line: don’t mess with spitrits.”

There were  a variety of stories that people would tell that would express a difference between the ‘good’ spirits and the ‘bad’ spirits (just a note: my explanations have been Westernized in order for people to understand). Although they were not necessarily  labeled as ‘good’, it was more like they were there to guide or help you. They would typically  observe you and protect you from harm, either from the spirit world or the physical world. The  opposite goes for ‘bad’ spirits. It is  more likely that they exist to cause you harm, either mentally, physically, or spiritually. 

Although every family treats the spirits around them differently, my family makes an effort to include the ‘good’ ones in our life. For example, if we were to buy an expensive bottle of alcohol, we would pour some out for the spirits and ancestors to enjoy first. There may be certain prayers that we complete in honor of them or to offer them gratitude for watching over us. 

As for the bad spirits, there are normally explanations given  pertaining to how to protect yourself or what to do if you encounter any. It would be obvious to avoid them, but you normally don’t have a choice. There are certain drinks  that our families take on certain occasions to ward them off as well as to protect ourselves from harm. It is not uncommon, though, to not know what you are drinking or what this would be doing for you. The general idea  is that you want to avoid all attachments or negative energies as best as possible, and there are very few ways to project yourself in that manner. 

The overall idea coming from an African household is that you don’t play with the idea of spirits–good or bad. Telling ghost stories is all fun and games in Western culture, but it could cause a bigger and different issue in another country. For example, my cousins sometimes still wear costumes, and that is different because they are replicating something that isn’t real. But playing with Ouija boards and telling ghost stories could cause implications for  your future life in terms of negativity, either spiritually or physically. Bottom line: don’t mess with spirits.

https://www.britannica.com/story/why-do-we-celebrate-halloween#:~:text=Halloween’s%20origins%20can%20be%20traced,bonfires%20to%20ward%20off%20spirits.
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Amandine Soho

UWindsor '24

Amandine Soho is currently a writer at the Her Campus UWindsor Chapter. Her content typically focuses on global issues, entertainment, and personal experiences. She has been a member since 2021, using this opportunity to grow her writing skills. Currently, Amandine is a fourth-year student at the University of Windsor, majoring in Forensics and Criminology, with a minor in Communication, Media, and Film. She is also the president of the Caribbean and African Organization of Students, where she helps curate events for Black students to find an inclusive community that welcomes them, on campus. In addition, Amandine is part of the Mentorship in Forensics program that allows her to guide a mentee in their academics and current exploration of careers in forensics. In her spare time, she loves talking about everything and nothing, watching TV shows and movies, writing fictitious stories, and eating all types of food (except black licorice and eggplant). She doesn't know how but she hopes to inspire someone one day.