A spooky Halloween to all of you !
The estimates for this
years Halloween per capita expenditure on costumes,
decorations and candy lie at about 90$. That amounts to nearly seven
billion dollars spent all in all, keeping in mind that this statistic
only covers the United States. Beforehand mentioned numbers raise
Halloween to the second largest feast, right after Christmas.
This typical American
tradition evolved... – wait, is it actually American? Almost
everyone of my friends in former times as well as myself were told by
family that this tradition from overseas should not have been shipped
to Europe because we already have our own customs. We do not need to
walk from door to door begging for sweets. Pumpkins are not European,
so Halloween cannot be
either. We already have got Carnival,
why should we dress up twice a year?
Thinking about the topic
for more than just one minute, probably lets you discover that there
could possibly be a relation between All Saints´ Day and
Halloween. If so, you are totally right.
2000 years ago, the
tradition was born in the form of a festival called Samhain
which meant Summers´ end
in the Celtic language. It
was
celebrated on the first of November, whereas the 31st
of October was
believed to be the day on which the dead reasserted
their presence. Nobody wanted
to face
the spirit of a deceased person, thus citizens disguised
before walking out of their houses,
in the hope to confuse the ghosts or be mistaken for a fellow one.
They left
food and wine on their
doorsteps and lit
bonfires in order to soothe the restless souls. Priests
even tried
to foretell if a village was
able to get
through the last night of
October or not.
In
the 8th
century, Catholic church weakened
the ancient tradition by imposing the first of November as either All
Saints´ Day or All
Hallows. The relation to
Halloween is obvious.
Nevertheless,
the Irish kept on doing what they were used to and when they immigrated
to America, they introduced
and mixed
up their customs with those of other
cultures, hence
the festival as we know it, with trick-or-treating, Jack O´Lanterns,
decorated
yards,
dressed up children and adults, arose.
![Jack O`Lanterns](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlQkEm-su-HRap6b4HIN_95sby7YE2jUcCr8fniHXr_cCC3YBHTnD8W-wUgQL22-jbI4dzugYFWx-hq6SOglVeDb0Uv6dheg0HqIw23zqZs1GZnxmM0WiOSasIxV6zCPdJOTRA-1k17Uc/s1600/Jack+O%60Lanterns.jpg) |
Some creative, modern Jack O`Lanterns |
By
the way: Jack O´Lanterns refer to the carved pumpkins with a candle in
them. They are named after Stingy
Jack,
a man who tricked the devil. God did not want to welcome such an
underhand person in heaven and of course the Devil prohibited him
entry to hell, so Jack had to wander around on earth. The only thing
the Devil gave him, was a burning coal that Jack put into a turnip to
be able to light his way.
When
this myth was finally brought to America, the pumpkin substituted the
turnip. In England, for instance, they used large beets.
There
is actually quite a big difference between the various versions of Halloween, depending on the culture.
The
Dia de los
Muertos, an example that surprised me in some way, is
held from the 31st
of October to the 2nd
of November in many Spanish speaking countries. The bereaved family
and friends construct an altar in honor of the dead and celebrate
“together with the spirits
of the deceased”. On the last day they assemble at the
graveside to picnic,
reminiscent and simply have fun thinking about the good old times.
To
each his own.
After
my
intense
research on the origins, myths and legends around the 31st
of October, my opinion on the subject has definitely changed. Although
the commercial part dampens my enthusiasm, I like the former
ghoulish, now rather funny basic idea of the tradition.
Now go and spread the word: Halloween is not American!