HALLOWEEN
October 31, 2008
I cannot believe that after five years of playing around with this website I have never mentioned Halloween. I've talked about Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving, but not so much as a freaking word about the trick-or-treating nonsense that refuses to go away.
I think of Halloween as a sort of counterpart to Easter. Both of them are connected to agricultural interests. Easter marks the beginning of the growing season, while Halloween marks the end of it. The darkness associated with Halloween is a no-brainer. It anticipates the darker part of the year, especially so since it originated in northern European climes.
It was one thing to carry on with such shenanigans as dressing up and carving pumpkins when we were less advanced and more technologically deprived, but to persist with it so far into the space age seems a little strange to say the least. I guess it's a confirmation of that old saying about people looking for any excuse to have a party.
It is also just another indicator of the extent to which we are not keeping up with technology, a claim I have made before (on more than one occasion I am sure). In the same way that our method of selecting representatives (with a voting system) is lagging far behind our technology, so are our predilections for carrying on ancient customs. Basically, we have a hard time letting go.
It is one thing for children to learn about these things in school. It is a part of history after all. I question, however, the practice of taking it into the streets and allowing (even encouraging) them to go begging from door to door in actual neighborhoods. There is too much of a chance that they will knock on someone's door who simply does not want to participate in such goings on (like me). Contrary to popular opinion, not everyone gets into the Halloween spirit (hey, was that a pun?).