Sunday, October 30, 2005

All Hallow's Eve



Tomorrow is Samhain. Or Halloween, depending on your persuasion.

These days it seems everyone has an opinion about it; after being battered by puritanical christian propaganda it's made a resurgence here in the UK, influenced no doubt by it's popularity in the USA, home of mass-marketing.
Anyone who knows the "Devils Night Greeting Cards" speech from the Crow will know what I'm getting at.

What gets me is the way some people still view it. For example, I asked one of my co-workers if they did the whole sweets-at-the-door thing, and was told that they most definitely did not, thank you.
She went on to say that she could not see why she, as a devout christian, should have to be made to take part in something that so blatantly has its roots in satanism and is only played out here because 'it's cool to copy America'.

And that was from someone who is,by all accounts, well educated and otherwise relatively normal. It was not at all what I expected from her.

It's sad that such narrow minded ignorance still crops up. I was tempted to try and argue it with her, but somehow I reckoned the 10 minutes of lunch I had left just wouldn't be enough.
I simply can't understand that mentality. If I don't understand something, I'll ask questions about it. Or get a book out of the library. Or look it up on the 'net.
I wouldn't bury my head in the sand and let Hollywood educate me.

South Africa doesn't have much of a Halloween tradition, so I didn't have anyone's opinions to colour my perception of it when I was growing up.
I was about 13 when I first realised it was more than the title of a movie. I like it. I like the idea of connecting to something that's so tangibly old; I like the whole feel of it.

I may not have a raging bonfire tomorrow night, but a fire will none the less be lit, and those kids brave enough to venture into the dark and knock on this stranger's door will be invited to grab a handful of treats from the cauldron.
Hell, I may even leave out the booby-trapped ones this year.
Posted by Mark :: 21:07 :: 4 Comments:

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