I was
feeling badly about feeling badly about this time of year. Specifically:
Autumn, and even more specifically, what has become the month-long build-up to
everyone’s second favorite holiday, Halloween. Because I’ve never been a big
fan of Halloween. Sure, when I was a kid we had a great carnival at my school,
complete with games where you could win cheap toys, a booth for face-painting,
and a haunted house manned by the upper grades. It’s the costume part that
bothered me. After we graduated past the plastic mask and gown phase of our
very young years, during which I was often whatever my brother had been the year
before (case in point: Speed Racer), we were left to our own devices when it
came to Halloween costumes. You had to find something around the house. There were the standards—hobo, witch, “lady” (which
basically involved a dress, socks for breasts and makeup)—and if you were more
creative, maybe a cat or a cowgirl. I never really liked donning another identity,
though, always found it more embarrassing than fun or liberating. I did enjoy
the pillowcase full of candy which, back then, we were allowed to eat however
quickly we wanted.
Fast
forward: adulthood and then my own parenthood. You’d think that perhaps my
heart would have warmed for the holiday but really, it hasn’t. I have found many of our
own kids’ costumes, especially when they were very little, completely adorable,
and yet, the parties and trick-or-treating with all the sweets and parading
around—I don’t know, just not my thing. As they grew older, our kids would
start discussing and often, stressing about their costumes way in advance of
the date. And it's California--it's almost always too warm for whatever costume they've chosen. Afterwards, there are negotiations and downright sabotage (on my part)
in regards to the obscene amount of candy they obtain. Because people nowadays
hand out insane portions, not the bite-size candy bars we used to get. But that’s
another rant.
I did
some reading about the history of Halloween, hoping it might get me in the
mood. I had the general gist of it: ancient harvest celebrations merged with
Christianity’s All Souls’ Day. This is true. The origins of the holiday date back to a Celtic
festival called Samhain (pronounced sow-in). About 2000 years ago, in the area
that is modern-day Ireland. The celebration was for the new year, which began
November 1, and to mark the transition from summer to winter. They believed
that during this transition, ghosts returned to earth and it was a good time
for the Celtic priests to divine the future.
Costumes were worn for protection from ghosts, and pranks and
games were played.
And
then yes, Christianity came and blended in. In 1000 A.D., All Souls’ Day was moved to November 2 in
what is widely believed to be a Christian coup to replace the Celtic traditions
with church-sanctioned ones.
Halloween
made the jump from old world to new but by the middle of the 19th
century, it wasn’t widely celebrated in America. Not until the immigrant infusion
of the late part of the century, especially the millions of Irish fleeing the
potato famine, did Halloween become an American institution. Again, the Irish. Any
parent with school-age children knows that now, ghouls and monsters have been replaced
with superheroes and celebrities, that trick-or-treating is all about the
treating and not really the tricking. Borrowing from European practices,
things like superstitions and the wearing of costumes have been appropriated
and made into the huge consumer spectacle we have today.
So do I
like Halloween more, having read about its origins? Not really. But here’s a
nice little video to get you in the mood, in case you do. The history of
Halloween, in a minute:
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