It’s Halloween. The kids are excited and the ghosts and ghouls are out. Despite the popularity of Halloween these days a couple of things strike me as rather ironic tonight.
Firstly, the fact that most people don’t even really know what Halloween is.
Secondly, the concept of encouraging our children to knock on strangers doors and accept sweets from people we (probably) don’t know.
Let me begin at the beginning. Halloween, derived from All Hallows’ Eve is traditionally a Christian celebration, it precedes All Saints (Hallows) Day on 1 November and All Souls Day on 2 November although these traditions may have pagan roots.
All Saints & All Souls Day are days in the liturgical year set aside to honor and pray for the dead including saint and the souls of the recently departed, usually those that may not yet have reached heaven. This used to mean mass and lighting candles at the graveside of a loved one, though, like many Christian festivals, celebrations often began on the evening before. This may have included various festivities, lighting bonfires, carving lanterns, tricks, games, apple bobbing and eating potato pancakes.
Many people believe that Halloween has its roots in pagan rituals, particularly Gaelic and Celtic rites where souls were allowed to cross over from the dead one night a year. This was to seek revenge if they had not been laid to Rest In Peace (RIP) or if they had been killed unjustly or unfairly they could visit those on which they wished to exact retribution. In order to avoid being sought out by the dead, people dressed up as the living dead to confuse the returning souls.
Regardless of the exact derivation of these traditions, today many of these customs and themes seem to have merged together. When you add a healthy dose of commercialism into the mix and some small children eagerly seeking out sweets, you get something along the lines of what Halloween looks like today.
As I explain this history to the boys while we eat an early meal before getting ready to go trick or treating I see their eyes glaze over a little more with each fact that I espouse.
I give up on the history lesson and move to my second lecture for the evening as I begin working on our facepaint.
”You know that you’re not usually allowed to knock on stranger’s doors?”.
”Yes mum”.
”Or take sweets from people we don’t know?”.
”Yes mum, we know mum!” they chorus.
When we’re about to step out the door with this exact purpose my questions seem ironic indeed.
They’re excited though and I resist the urge to utter further warnings, dampening their enthusiasm. We head up the street but not before a few rings on our doorbell has seen us handing out sweets first.
Many households have gone to a lot of trouble with the decorations. Last year I carved a jack’o’lantern but this year we have one paltry skull sitting up on the wall, the lights barely flashing in his bloodshot eyes. I’m a little worried the boys, Harley in particular, will be scared (I would have been at that age) but he’s more intrigued than anything. Witches, wizards, ghosts and ghouls, there are jack’o’lanterns, skulls, some graves and one household has bloody footprints leading up the garden path.
We visit perhaps a dozen houses. There are cobwebs in the bushes outside and a talking pumpkin makes me jump, and then laugh.
There are small children out in groups with various adults and some older children wandering around by themselves. I don’t think I have ever met so many of our neighbors before.
After a lap of the street the boys have trick or treated their way to a hefty haul of sweets contain in an orange plastic pumpkin head.
We head home and they tip out their takings to check it out. A couple of sweets and it’s time for bed.
The next night the celebrations continue as we are out for dinner. Quite unprepared for the costume party we find ourselves in the middle of I gape at the efforts that have gone into the outfits, decorations and food preparations for the night.
We’re at Zero Gravity and although we haven’t dressed up we have a fabulous night. No pool tonight although Diana and I vow to return next year in full costume. I’ll have to brush up on my face painting skills in the meantime and perhaps my storytelling as I wonder how many of the revellers know what Halloween is all about…..
Would I Return?
Yes. I resisted Halloween celebrations as too commercialized for years. However, if living in Dubai has taught me one thing its that commercialization doesn’t necessarily take away from the meaning of something if you don’t let it. The important thing for me is that I’m building traditions and memories with my family. I know that in years to come, it’s not the plastic pumpkins that will bring the sentiments flooding back, it’s the time together that will still taste sweet, long after the taste of all that chocolate has faded.
One Reply to “Halloween”