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It's October, and I'm looking at all the Halloween stuff and thinking of 1) where it came from and 2) how it's changing.
Halloween night used to be what now we make a mockery of- a frightening night, when the dark fears that all of us have take shape before the holiness of All Saints Day drives them away. There were no pumpkins, but they used turnip. I tried that once and nearly cut my hand to pieces, in addition to breaking two knives. Maybe the ones they had then weren't so blasted hard.
Remember, back then, superstition was rampant. Illness took some people and not others; tragedy befell people left and right. About half the women died in childbirth, and more than half of the children died before they reached adulthood. Famine and floods and storms came from nowhere. There were real fears of great evils.
We think we have it bad? You remember all those pictures of Haiti when the hurricane went through? That was most of Europe in the Dark Ages. Forget the noble romances you read- that was less than five percent of the population. Life was short and hard and miserable, and heaven was the only relief they could hope for.
Back on topic, nowadays we don't have much respect for what hides in the dark. We fear being hurt by bad people, we fear cancer and other diseases, and we fear natural disasters, but we have some idea of what we are dealing with! We don't fear evil except in an abstract sense. Many (okay, most) of us do not believe in true evil, only the harsh and barbaric side of human nature. We feel we have some control over our lives.
But something else I have notices, and this is a direct result of many churches' influence. Halloween is turning more into 'harvest festivals' and other celebrations of fall. Now, there is not a thing wrong with this. Harvest used to be a time of celebration, before the frugality that had to follow in winter.
But in a way, these churches are acknowledging something. They are acknowledging the background of Halloween, of the darkness that everyone fears in some primitive part of their minds. Since they cannot acknowledge the holy day that follows (honoring saints being an acknowledgement of the fact that their basic religion came from the Roman Catholic Church and therefore anathema) they seek to combat that fear by replacing its recognition with another celebration.
Ironic, isn't it, that they're doing what those poor superstitious peasants did in their own way?
Halloween night used to be what now we make a mockery of- a frightening night, when the dark fears that all of us have take shape before the holiness of All Saints Day drives them away. There were no pumpkins, but they used turnip. I tried that once and nearly cut my hand to pieces, in addition to breaking two knives. Maybe the ones they had then weren't so blasted hard.
Remember, back then, superstition was rampant. Illness took some people and not others; tragedy befell people left and right. About half the women died in childbirth, and more than half of the children died before they reached adulthood. Famine and floods and storms came from nowhere. There were real fears of great evils.
We think we have it bad? You remember all those pictures of Haiti when the hurricane went through? That was most of Europe in the Dark Ages. Forget the noble romances you read- that was less than five percent of the population. Life was short and hard and miserable, and heaven was the only relief they could hope for.
Back on topic, nowadays we don't have much respect for what hides in the dark. We fear being hurt by bad people, we fear cancer and other diseases, and we fear natural disasters, but we have some idea of what we are dealing with! We don't fear evil except in an abstract sense. Many (okay, most) of us do not believe in true evil, only the harsh and barbaric side of human nature. We feel we have some control over our lives.
But something else I have notices, and this is a direct result of many churches' influence. Halloween is turning more into 'harvest festivals' and other celebrations of fall. Now, there is not a thing wrong with this. Harvest used to be a time of celebration, before the frugality that had to follow in winter.
But in a way, these churches are acknowledging something. They are acknowledging the background of Halloween, of the darkness that everyone fears in some primitive part of their minds. Since they cannot acknowledge the holy day that follows (honoring saints being an acknowledgement of the fact that their basic religion came from the Roman Catholic Church and therefore anathema) they seek to combat that fear by replacing its recognition with another celebration.
Ironic, isn't it, that they're doing what those poor superstitious peasants did in their own way?
