Celebration of Halloween, a holiday of masks and costumes, which has become quite popular in Uzbekistan during the past five years, is banned by Uzbek authorities.

This holiday, which is not widely celebrated in Uzbekistan, was not officially banned.

However, the institutions that were going to celebrate it were given informal, yet strict instructions by representatives of law enforcement services not to organize any parties on this occasion.

“Owners of public institutions were verbally warned. But they were not shown any documents about the ban, and they did not sign anything,” says “Jarayon”s source in Tashkent.

According to Tashkent resident, who wished to remain anonymous, on 28-31st of October many shops were closed in the evenings. Those shops and public places for entertainment that were open were guarded by groups of police.

Great numbers of police officers were concentrated in capital city during these days.

As Facebook users from Uzbekistan reported, there were several cases when police officer arrested those, who went out in costumes and masks despite the unofficial ban to celebrate Halloween.

Public places for entertainment that organized Halloween parties were suddenly checked by tax service and representatives of sanitary-epidemiological station.

Earlier this year, St. Valentine’s Day, which has been celebrated on February 14 each year and widely referred as “Love day” in Uzbekistan, was also banned by the Uzbek authorities.

A concert of famous pop-star Rayhon, scheduled for February 14, was suddenly cancelled. Instead, the concert hall “Istiqlol” hosted an evening dedicated to work of Uzbek poet Bobur.

Uzbek authorities justify these bans stating that such “foreign” holidays contradict the Uzbek culture and are aimed at spoiling minds of youth in the country.

Observers believe that the Uzbek authorities consider any public gatherings of people as potential threat to the regime, and, therefore, ban such holidays under different excuses.

Halloween takes its origin from ancient Ireland and Scotland, where it was traditionally celebrated by Celts. Later it also became part of British culture.

This holiday started on the eve of Christian “All Saints Day”, which was celebrated on November 1 in ancient times.

Halloween later became an eminent part of culture in Great Britain and America. Today, it is also widely celebrated in countries that have close cultural ties with US and Great Britain.

One can observe that “Trick or treat” holiday has also become quite popular in former Soviet Union countries. Traditionally, it is celebrated by young people in clubs and other places for entertainment wearing costumes and masks of negative characters.