Late.
Just finished this essay. Perhaps a little late in the year, but oh well. :] Enjoy. Comments are most welcome.
Halloween, for many people means the traditional spooks and ghouls, trick-or-treat, and dunking for apples. For me, it means something more. The different costumes every year, and the decorations always inspired me. The fascination of its history proved something more than just a costume-party. Halloween was created through myth and fact, through old folk lore and belief, and the story of how it begun still remains the same.
Whether you believe in the living dead or not, the Halloween story could still send shivers up your spine. The tale of disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed that it was their only hope for the afterlife.
On the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them look cold & unlived in. They would then dress up in ghoulish costumes and parade around the neighbourhood in hope that this would frighten away the spirits.
Halloween has gradually become a 'ghost holiday', if you pardon the pun. Many people in the world today don't even celebrate the ghoulish holiday and forget about it completely. This is probably due to the different beliefs of where and when the holiday started. Many religions have even abolished the holiday from their calendar, perhaps in fear that thinking it was too evil a holiday to celebrate. Although, I beg to differ.
Let’s explore the positive side of Halloween, and just maybe we can agree that celebration of this old tradition is something that we can hold on to for our future generations to enjoy as we have done in the past.
Anticipation - something that races the heart and fills us with expectation. A birthday party, Christmas Eve, a summer holiday, a new romance. All of these capture our imagination and we release our excitement in preparing for the event, sometimes well in advance of the occasion. In preparing for these, we discuss what we propose to do with our friends and allow our imaginations to run riot. Escapism, I know, but nevertheless a release from the routine treadmill of daily life. Halloween is likewise one of those occasions where we enter the world of fantasy and through exploration of our creative imagination we allow our minds to reach a higher level of spirituality.
But what makes the spirituality of Halloween is its relationship with all things earthly. It is the coming together of the spirit world with the living on earth on one night of the year. We allow ourselves to be frightened, as fear itself is a form of enjoyment, even if this is only realised after we return to our safe environment.
Children love Halloween, and who would deny them the opportunity to frighten themselves and their friends at this unique time of the year. Parents and older people also love this holiday, as it allows them to relive their own childhood and to think about the pranks and dares that were fulfilled all those years ago. Talking to their children about those occasions is a form of story telling, something which sadly is a diminishing art within modern society. Halloween is therefore an opportunity for young and old to bond in a common celebration.
So forget about those modern day killjoys who complain about trick-or-treating pranksters, noisy fireworks, and people dressed up in outlandish costumes. What have they got to offer? Nothing but a routine daily ritual of school, work, supper, television, and dare I say it, the internet. For just one day in the year, let us return to the old values of creating family enjoyment without modern day technology and pressures of today’s society. The spirit of Halloween lives on, because somewhere in the hidden depths of our brains lies an inherited fear of the unknown but coupled with a need for excitement and pleasure. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.
Halloween, for many people means the traditional spooks and ghouls, trick-or-treat, and dunking for apples. For me, it means something more. The different costumes every year, and the decorations always inspired me. The fascination of its history proved something more than just a costume-party. Halloween was created through myth and fact, through old folk lore and belief, and the story of how it begun still remains the same.
Whether you believe in the living dead or not, the Halloween story could still send shivers up your spine. The tale of disembodied spirits of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back in search of living bodies to possess for the next year. It was believed that it was their only hope for the afterlife.
On the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them look cold & unlived in. They would then dress up in ghoulish costumes and parade around the neighbourhood in hope that this would frighten away the spirits.
Halloween has gradually become a 'ghost holiday', if you pardon the pun. Many people in the world today don't even celebrate the ghoulish holiday and forget about it completely. This is probably due to the different beliefs of where and when the holiday started. Many religions have even abolished the holiday from their calendar, perhaps in fear that thinking it was too evil a holiday to celebrate. Although, I beg to differ.
Let’s explore the positive side of Halloween, and just maybe we can agree that celebration of this old tradition is something that we can hold on to for our future generations to enjoy as we have done in the past.
Anticipation - something that races the heart and fills us with expectation. A birthday party, Christmas Eve, a summer holiday, a new romance. All of these capture our imagination and we release our excitement in preparing for the event, sometimes well in advance of the occasion. In preparing for these, we discuss what we propose to do with our friends and allow our imaginations to run riot. Escapism, I know, but nevertheless a release from the routine treadmill of daily life. Halloween is likewise one of those occasions where we enter the world of fantasy and through exploration of our creative imagination we allow our minds to reach a higher level of spirituality.
But what makes the spirituality of Halloween is its relationship with all things earthly. It is the coming together of the spirit world with the living on earth on one night of the year. We allow ourselves to be frightened, as fear itself is a form of enjoyment, even if this is only realised after we return to our safe environment.
Children love Halloween, and who would deny them the opportunity to frighten themselves and their friends at this unique time of the year. Parents and older people also love this holiday, as it allows them to relive their own childhood and to think about the pranks and dares that were fulfilled all those years ago. Talking to their children about those occasions is a form of story telling, something which sadly is a diminishing art within modern society. Halloween is therefore an opportunity for young and old to bond in a common celebration.
So forget about those modern day killjoys who complain about trick-or-treating pranksters, noisy fireworks, and people dressed up in outlandish costumes. What have they got to offer? Nothing but a routine daily ritual of school, work, supper, television, and dare I say it, the internet. For just one day in the year, let us return to the old values of creating family enjoyment without modern day technology and pressures of today’s society. The spirit of Halloween lives on, because somewhere in the hidden depths of our brains lies an inherited fear of the unknown but coupled with a need for excitement and pleasure. After all, the day itself is only as evil as one cares to make it.