hankyoreh

Halloween decor including a towering skeleton and faux cobwebs sit outside a home in the Old Town district of Alexandria, VA, on Oct. 13. (Choi Sung-jin/The Hankyoreh)

The tragic crowd crush in Seoul on Saturday evening took place ahead of Halloween, a holiday that is considered one of the major autumn festivals in the US — and one that has become increasingly popular among Koreans in the past few years, particularly among younger people and at daycare centers and kindergartens.

The origins of Halloween are said to lie with the festival of Samhain, which was held by the Celtic inhabitants of Ireland every Oct. 31, the day before the Christian solemnity of All Saint’s Day.

Halloween eventually spread through the US as around a million Irish people arrived there in the mid-1840s, fleeing a massive famine caused by potato blight. Today, many American families decorate their homes with Halloween symbols such as jack-o’-lanterns, spiders, skeletons and witches.

Many Americans seek out pumpkin patches in October in order to find pumpkins fit for carving into jack-o’-lanterns. People can be seen at one such pumpkin patch in Maryland on Oct. 11. (Choi Sung-jin/The Hankyoreh)

It isn’t clear when or how Halloween became popularized in Korea. But some cultural researchers suggest that the American-style holiday arrived in Seoul nightlife neighborhoods such as Itaewon and the vicinity of Hongik University by way of Japan, where it had become combined with costume play (cosplay) culture.

Indeed, its popularization coincided with the rapid commercialization of Itaewon that began around the mid-’00s.

Recent years have seen a rapid increase in Halloween fashion shows and parties at facilities for small children, including daycare centers and English-language kindergartens.

“The kindergarten affiliated with the elementary school our 7-year-old son attends holds Halloween events every year,” said a 44-year-old parent surnamed Lee who lives in Seoul’s Nowon District.

“This year, they had the children doing a Halloween costume fashion show and trick-or-treating, where they visited agreed-upon locations to get Halloween candy,” Lee added.

Halloween decorations can go in many directions in the US. (Choi Sung-jin/The Hankyoreh)

Lee Taek-gwang, a professor of global communications at Kyung Hee University, explained in a telephone interview with the Hankyoreh on Sunday that “commercialization” and “social media” are keys to understanding the Halloween trend.

“Halloween, which can be seen as one of the most representative US holidays, really became commercialized as it combined with cosplay culture in Japan, and as that commercialized version of Halloween arrived in Korea, it became established as a culture for the younger generation,” he said.

“In particular, Halloween has drawn attention as a visual element on social media like Instagram, where it is a way of producing the most powerful effects for members of the younger generation who are exploring their own identity,” he added.

By Choi Sung-jin, staff reporter

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