HALLOWEEN FREAKS
Do you actually know what Halloween is? I didn't untill I took a sit in front of my computer this afternoon and I begann to look for information on the Internet. Well now I have some more knowledge of this feast.
"Hallowe’en” is an English word: all Hallows Eve. It means literally the evening before All Hallows Day or All Saints Day. In Italy the 2nd of November has traditionally been called “Il Giorno di Tutti Morti” which translates as the day of the dead. It’s a day where the dead are remembered and everybody goes to visit the graves of departed family and friends.
For the Irish Celts the 31st of October was called Samhain, which is Gaelic for "the end of the summer". It was the last day of the Celtic year. So it was actually New Year’s Eve. Samhain didn’t belong to the old year and neither did it belong to the new year, it was when death and life met and interchanged : the worlds of the living and the dead side by side. People believed that during this time the dead could enter the land of the living. The ancient Celts didn’t fear the dead and they would leave food out to welcome them. Neither did they believe in demons. In Irish legends there is no talk of evil demons and devils as such, only the evil of mankind. There wasn’t even a ‘god of the dead’.
But where do the different things such as the pumpkin or dressing up come from? First of all, there are no pumpkins in Ireland, there they have always used turnips (=rape). Legends tell us that when the dead wandered on the land, they carried a light with them; so it was tradition to dress up as a dead person and carry a light if you had to go out so that the actual dead would think you were one of them and wouldn't try to bring the living back with them . An interesting note (unknown to many Italians, me too) is that the use of hollowed pumpkins is documented in Emilia Romagna .
Halloween has become increasingly popular across Europe, although many people still say it is just an American custom that has got nothing to do with our culture. Moreover some clerics and conservatives complain it undermines our cultural identity. Personally I don't agree with them: all ancient races honoured their ancestors at some time or another and frequently in similar ways. People are free to celebrate as they want; we must not celebrate Halloween, I mean nobody is forcing us. If somebody does not like this feast because he/she thinks it is a manifestation of neo-paganism, well this person is free to just ignore it. But for the same freedom other people can celebrate it as they want.
As we discussed few days ago in class globalization does not necessary mean deprivation of identity. In my opinion we are living in a period of transition and that's why there are so many debates related to Halloween, this is just normal.
Halloween is a patchwork holiday; click on the link below to learn more:
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