Now we wait for Halloween?

Well, the biggest festival of India is over and we now wait eagerly to see Christmas festivities around the world taking centerstage. Usually as per the Hindu calendar, Diwali in many ways marks the end of festivals of the year, except for the ‘choti diwali’ or Tulsi Vivah in a fortnight from now. But for retailers, this is the end of the big season. Now will be the time when they will sit and calculate how much they sold and how much stock remains unsold. The sales numbers of vehicles for October, which will be announced on 1^st Nov will tell us the real story.

But the smaller’ retailers are apparently getting ready for another ‘western’ event. Just as 14^th February is a big day for card, bouquet and other gift sellers, thanks to Valentine day, another such new ‘festival’ will hit take over our Indian shops, slowly but surely. 31^st Oct, the western world celebrates Halloween and it really does not exist as such in India. But Hyderabad, which probably has some of the highest number of people living in USA, Halloween is also seen catching up.

Many MNC offices in Hyderabad celebrated the festival a week in advance, with many turning up in Halloween costumes to office on 24^th, the day after Diwali. Many have now started celebrating this at home too after Harry Potter movies, with children insisting that they too need to celebrate. Clubs and discotheques are also having Halloween nights and the city is going all out to accept this new festival. Halloween is actually a festival which commemorates the dead; we also have our Pitrupaksha but surely, Halloween will find more appeal.