Saudi Arabia has celebrated Halloween this year with pomp and scary costumes in a celebration that once used to be banned in the middle eastern country, leaving people’s opinions divided.
Revellers stalked the streets of capital Riyadh wearing masks and spine-chilling costumes to celebrate the government-sponsored “scary weekend” which took place from Thursday.
Celebrations of the festival had earlier led to arrests, but were allowed this year by de-facto ruler Mohammed Bin Salman under his “Vision 2020” plan to modernise the country.
In contrast, the Saudi police had raided a Halloween party in 2018, arrested dozens of people and asked women to “cover up”.
This year, people along with their families dressed in the choicest of spooky costumes and makeup and painted the town red in festivities, some for the first time.
“It’s a great celebration, honestly, and there’s a spirit of joy,” attendee Abdulrahman, who wore a costume of the North American mythological creature Wendigo, told Arab News.
“In terms of haram or halal, I don’t know about it. We celebrate it just for the fun of it and nothing else. We don’t believe in anything.”
The government event was reportedly held just before the actual festival of Halloween so as not to be seen as officially commemorating the pagan festival.
However, the weekend celebrations drew severe criticism from conservatives who accused authorities of “double standards” for earlier not permitting celebrations of Prophet Muhammad’s birth anniversary.
“The crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman, has started to allow Halloween Celebrations in Saudi Arabia, in the name of ‘reformism’,” said research writer Ramazan Izol.
“This is not reformism or innovation but rather dishonour and degeneracy. We do not accept this!”
“May Allah save us from trap of Dajjal (deceiver) Ameen,” wrote one Twitter user.
“Saudi Arabia openly celebrating Halloween is extremely scary to me,” wrote another netizen.
“What in the world is this? Halloween in Saudi while they banned Mawlid, Sufis and Sufism (sic),” tweeted user Khalid Ajmain.
