Pope Gregory the First would never have imagined this. An American chocolate-maker launching a Halloween familiarisation campaign in India. In Riyadh, mummies, ghouls and goblins roamed the streets. The General Entertainment Authority, which is a government department of Saudi Arabia, was promoting what they called the “Horror Weekend”. Saudi horror film Junoon was premiered at the movie theatre Boulevard Riyadh City. Hollywood has something called the Halloween franchise with a bouquet of 18 films.

Boo

Hong Kongers continued to party notwithstanding the 150-plus deaths in Seoul in a Halloween crowd crush. Among the dead in Itaewon were South Koreans, of course, and reportedly 20 foreigners --- from Sri Lanka, China, Russia, Iran, Australia, America… Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah shared a picture of his daughters celebrating Halloween. Elon Musk, who had just gotten started on the Twitter bloodbath, dropped in at supermodel Heidi Klum’s party, one with bathtubs of blood. A ketchup company chose this very time to promote itself in Spain, Chile, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Something about the scary side of tomatoes. Cops in costume bust a gang of druggies in Peru. And so it goes on.

For Christ's sake

The son of a Roman senator, Pope Gregory the First, had wanted to spread Christianity. In 597 AD, he wrote to Abbot Mellitus, a member of the Gregorian mission sent to England to convert the Anglo Saxons to Christianity: “Tell Augustine [St. Augustine of Canterbury] that he should by no means destroy the temples of the gods but rather the idols within… they should be converted from the worship of demons to the service of the true God… seeing that their places of worship are not destroyed, the people will banish error from their hearts and come to places familiar and dear to them…” So also, pre-Christian customs and holidays were allowed to continue, only with new Christian associations. That is how Christmas apparently came to be tied to December 25 --- it coincided with midwinter celebrations. From October 31 right through to November 1, something called Samhain was celebrated. Complete with drinking, merrymaking, invoking of the spirits and mumming, it was Halloween by another name. Christianisation turned November 1 into All Saints' Day and eventually, November 2 became All Souls’ Day. But as it turns out, none of that managed to denude the appeal of Halloween. Instead, it has persisted and flourished with tenacity greater than saints and souls. According to the National Retail Federation, US, which is the world's largest retail trade association, the projected spending on Halloween this year is $10.6 billion.