Via Gardner Dozois: Today is, of course, Halloween. Halloween originally started as All Hallows Eve or Samhain, a festival marking the end of the harvest season and the end of the Celtic year, when the gates between the world of the living and the world of the dead opened, and the dead could return to Earth to ruin crops and make people sick; to ward this off, people made big bonfires, left offerings of food outside, and wore costumes or masks to fool the restless ghosts. Samhain is still celebrated by some, but, brought to the United States by Irish/English immigrants, it somehow evolved over the years here to one of the major family-friendly holidays--over 40 million children go Trick or Treating in this country every year, and more than one quarter of all the candy sold during the year in the United States is sold during the Halloween season--to the point where this family-friendly version of Samhain is now largely thought of as an American holiday in the rest of the world. Ironically, the American Halloween is now being imported back to Europe, with kids in Britain and France and elsewhere beginning to start going Trick or Treating in large numbers; I was in Nantes, France, in 2000 when Trick or Treaters hit the downtown area for the first time, to the bemusement of the shop owners, who found that they were now expected to give candy to children dressed as pirates and ghosts. Today is also the start of the three-day Day of the Dead festival in Mexico, a festival with a very different atmosphere than either the scary atmosphere of the old-time Samhain or the mock-scary atmosphere of Halloween, the mood being one of celebration, with families going to spend the night in graveyards to picnic with their returning departed relatives. American Halloween was always one of my favorite holidays, in some ways one I enjoyed even more than Christmas. There was a wild, exciting, pagan air to it, all the normal rules and roles dissolved, the smell of wood smoke in the chill autumn air, ghosts and skeletons and monsters running through the dark. Really, the free candy was, in a way, really the least important part. I myself enjoyed the voyeuristic thrill of getting a brief vivid glimpse into peoples houses and lives you got when they opened the door to give you a treat more than the cupcake filler full of candy corn they eventually handed you. Today is also National Frankenstein Day, also known as Frankenstein Friday. I hope I dont have to explain that Frankenstein was the DOCTORS name, not that of the Monster, but whats weird is that Frankensteins Monster has become an iconic Halloween character, in spite of the fact that I dont think that Halloween or even Samhain is even mentioned in the original novel, which if Im remembering correctly takes place in the wrong time of the year. To continue the spooky Halloween theme, its also National Magic Day, as well as Increase Your Psychic Powers Day. National Bandana Day, which it also is, doesnt work in there as comfortably, but I suppose theres no reason why you couldnt wear a bandana while increasing your psychic powers or performing magic. To swing away from the Halloween theme, its also National Knock Knock Joke Day, so feel free to post your best Knock Knock Jokes here. Extra points for Knock Knock Jokes with a Halloween theme. For dinner, if all that Halloween candy hasnt satisfied your sweet tooth, its also National Caramel Apple Day. To give a more solid bottom to your stomach, you can also fill up on breadsticks, because its also National Breadsticks Day.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 14:12:39 +0000
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