One of the most exciting days of the year is upon us and for the first time I find myself not participating in any Halloween featured event. As a result of this saddening situation I find myself proned to vent a feeling that has been bugging me weeks before this holiday had even been floating around my subconscious. I have already mentioned that I had been reading the novel "The Witches" to my students. There were a total of four students who at various points over the course of the reading of the novel informed me that they were not given permission to listen to the story because it discussed an indirect connection to the devil. They were not so eloquent but this is what it boiled down to. They explained they were not allowed to celebrate Halloween because it was the celebration of the devil's birthday. I found this extremely frustrating because I was pretty certain that Halloween has nothing to do with the devil. I acquiesced to their demands, but tonight I decided to do a little research on the origins of Halloween. According to Rumela's Web, Halloween came from the christian church in the eighth century. The church created All Saints Day to be celebrated on November first. The purpose of the day was to acknowledge and rejoice in the lives of all the saints that did not have a special day of their own set aside for them. The mass performed the night before was termed All Hallowmas which means the mass of all Hallows or saintly people. Eventually it was known as All Hallows Eve and emerged as Halloween. In the 5th Century BC, in Celtic Ireland, summer officially ended on October 31st. That day was deemed the Celtic New Year and was believed to be a day in which the disembodied spirits of all those who had died during the preceeding year were given one final chance to possess living bodies for the forthcoming year. The Celts believed that the realms of the supernatural and reality became intertwined on this night. Thus, the civilians as a means to frighten off the spirits and discourage them from finding living bodies to possess would dress up in costumes and attempt to be as destructive as possible. They would put out all the lights in and around their houses, leaving them cold and unwelcoming.
Trick-or-treating came from an old European custom where Christians would walk from village to village begging for "Soul Cakes." For every "soul cake" they received, they would say a prayer for those who had died over the past year. They believe that the prayers would help the disembodied souls get into heaven.
The jack-o-lantern came from an old Irish folktale that told the story of an Irish drunkard and trickster named Jack who was denied entrance to Heaven when he died due to the sins he had committed while alive. While living, Jack had tricked Satan into climbing a tree. When Satan had reached the top, he carved a cross into the bark, trapping the devil in the tree. He then promised to let Satan down if he agreed not to tempt him again as long as he lived. The consequence of this act resolved the devil not to let Jack into Hell either. He was cursed to wander through the darkness with only a small light place inside an empty turnip. When immigrants came to America bringing Halloween with them, the replaced the turnip with a pumpking because the pumpkin was more plentiful.
So there you have it. A brief history of Halloween. Pretty interesting stuff. My gripe remains with the ignorance of those who practice religion with such zeal and yet will contentedly develop their own uninformed beliefs from exaggerated images from pop culture. I guess the reason it irks me so badly is not the withholding of a generally enjoyable holiday from children, but from the divide it created within my classroom. I had students ostracizing other students for participation in the celebration of the devils birthday when in fact this is far from the truth. I can't blame these children because they only repeat what they hear from their parents. I guess ultimately I am saddened and frustrated by the continual emergence of fear of otherness and the actions individuals will take to impose hatred and disapproval of those who are different from themselves. I try to preach openness to my students and yet sometimes I truly believe I am preaching to a brick wall. I wonder about where all this anger that has accumulated and is so ingrained in the culture has originated from. Is it a disatisfaction with the adversity that life challenges us with. or is it something deeper that has traversed generations and penetrated the psyche of the poor South? I am afraid to assume it is the latter, because some holes are too deep to dig out of. Where do you find hope at the bottom of an abyss? I feel like Albert Camus. The sad truth is that I believe the only true escape from the repetition of such fortunes only exists in an escape from the culture and that is what I am offering these children. I am not endorsing the abandonment of family and faith, merely an release of the values that keep perpetuating the downward spiral. I do not want to come off as an elitist either. That my chosen path may be better than anyone else's. I just believe that with education comes the ability to make decisions that are not completely influenced by the past and the impending pressure that religion and family can place on one's shoulders. While I still believe in many of the morals of Jewish culture, I do not suscribe to many of the religious tenets that are the glue of judaism. My lack of faith is accompanied with a certain loneliness. I admit my own jealousy of those who possess unrestrained faith in a greater being. At times I wish that I could commit to a greater power on mere faith, but I guess I don't believe in God for the same reasons as many folks believe in Intelligent Design. They say that since life is so incredibly complicated and ultimately one cannot break down the origin of life, there must be an original design orchestrated by some intelligent being. I say, since no one has ever provided or experienced any objective proof of God, then there is no God. I guess I feel this way for the same reason that I don't believe in ghosts or supernatural power. Don't get me wrong, I want to believe. But because there has never been any recorded scientific evidence of supernatural existence, I refuse to accept it as reality.
Wow, I got deep without realizing it. And to think that I was afraid that I had nothing to talk about tonight. Always full of surprises. If anyone has anything to add to the history of Halloween, please induldge me. It's pretty fun stuff.
Goodnight, and don't let Jack get you.
