U.S. Army HIMARS Shoots Out Halloween Candy for Kids in Viral Video
Halloween #Halloween
A U.S. army post has gone viral after showing a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) shooting out candy for children for Halloween.
The video was posted by the U.S. Army Fort Sill in Oklahoma and has been viewed more than 350,000 times since being posted on Monday.
“How else would you expect us to give children candy on Halloween? Fire Mission,” the page captioned the footage. The short video shows dozens of costumed children excitedly chasing after candy after it was shot out by the HIMARS.
HIMARS, lightweight mobile launchers mounted on military vehicles, are more regularly used as formidable weapons in Ukraine against Russian forces.
Throughout the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the U.S. has been supplying Ukraine with HIMARS for helping turn the war in Kyiv’s favour.
Since they first arrived in Ukraine in June, Ukrainian forces have used them to strike ammunition depots, bridges and other key targets, hindering Russia’s ability to resupply troops in the country.
U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden also enjoyed their first trick-or-treaters at the White House as part of their Halloween celebrations.
The pair met kids and handed out candy as well as offering words of encouragement, according to a Reuters report.
Biden, who was in Europe for Halloween last year, was particularly pleased with a tot dressed up as a potato-chip bag and posed for a picture with a young child dressed as Buzz Lightyear, a character from the “Toy Story” Pixar franchise.
Candy was also distributed by representatives from the Department of Education, Department of Transportation, NASA, United States Secret Service, Peace Corps, White House Fire Brigade and White House staff among others.
Millions of people celebrate Halloween each year, but many of them don’t know the intriguing history behind the festivities.
Author Lisa Morton, who has written three books on the origin of the festival, previously spoke to Newsweek and said that the holiday began around the fifth century A.D. when Christian missionaries tried to convert the Irish Celts, who celebrated their year-end festival Samhain (“sow in”) at the end of October each year.
U.S. Army HIMARS Shoots Out Halloween Candy For Kids In Viral Video
SHARE
SHARE
TWEET
SHARE
Click to expand
UP NEXT
“Samhain (the literal translation is “summer’s end”) was a time of borders—between years, between seasons, and between our world and the Otherworld, where malicious creatures called the sidh (pronounced “she”) lived, but could cross over on Samhain night into our world and create all kinds of supernatural havoc,” Morton told Newsweek.
The Celts told spooky stories about the sidh on Samhain, and that’s likely where Halloween got its macabre side from since the holiday the Catholic Church moved from May 13 to November 1 was known as All Saints’ Day, she said.
Halloween was celebrated mainly by the Celts’ descendants — the Irish and the Scottish — for centuries, and when immigrants from those countries came to America in the 1840s, fleeing famine in their homeland, they brought the spooky celebration with them.
Related Articles
Start your unlimited Newsweek trial