Monday, October 26, 2009
Halloween
Why Halloween?
Why dressing up? Why the giving out of candy? What is it all for?
Well, you could always go to Wikipedia and they would tell you Pagan this and harvest festival that. I don't believe that is the real reason.
The real reason that the kids should dress up and go out is because it is real. All of the ghosts and ghouls and goblins; the things that go bump in the night are real. The creepy crawlies that slither are real. All the beasties and the monsters in the closet are real.
In the past, in the long time ago time, evil things walked the Earth. While man huddled around the fires in the caves or huts the bad things walked the night. If you stepped too far outside of the light of campfire, there was a very real chance that the bad things would get you. Especially the small children.
Children taste the best. They are sweet where adults are bitter. They are crisp while grown ups are soggy. The make the creatures from the dark side salivate just at the thought of their deliciousness.
So the the evil would stalk man. Man was easy prey in the before times. Some of the creatures would approach the caves of man and whisper things to the small children or the foolish person. They would promise delicious goodies or gold and jewels. If you left the protection of your home they would pounce! But then man discovered magic.
The shaman and the witch doctors and the wise women would cast spells to keep the creatures away. They would have the people dress up in costumes and do magics to confuse the dark forces into thinking the humans were not food but creatures like themselves. They would leave sacrifices and offerings of honey and berries near the openings of the caves and the huts and houses, eventually, so that if any thing evil came calling it would find the goodies instead of the children that were inside.
So it went through history. As man grew stronger, and took dominion over the world, and brought forth technologies and sources of light the old ones where either destroyed or they went back to the dark places. They slipped into the realm of the creatures or spirits or evil ones, and they became trapped. The stronger man and his world became the more their world became a trap that they couldn't escape.
Oh, every now and then some creature may escape or there may be a haunted house, or a possession--but nothing like the old times. Except once a year. Just like a pressure cooker must let off steam or a dam must let water flow, once a year the veil between what was, and what is becomes thin. On Halloween the dark ones are free to walk the earth.
That doesn't explain why in this modern day and age we still dress up, and why we hand out candy, and why we put up strange decorations. Over the years we have lost our connection to those old times when we knew that evil was real. When evil was faced down and fought with masks and the bones and the rituals; or have we?
When the creatures slip from their world into ours, hungry for souls and flesh, especially of the young, what do they see? They see a world full of creatures like them. The magic of the masks cloud the simple minds of the hungry creatures. When the ghouls and spirits creep to the doors of a houses looking to find a sweet young morsel on which to feed, they become caught up in the mantra of "Trick or Treat!" and are given candy and sweets. They get caught up in the revelry, confused by the decorations and fed by offerings freely given.
We may not realize what we do and of course not every one participates but collectively we are keeping the creepy and the crawly and the bad things at bay. A connection back to the past when what we believed and what we knew were not so easy to separate.
So get some candy, put on a costume, and have a happy Halloween. And if that trick or treater at your door looks to have a costume a little too life-like just give him some extra candy, and wish them a Happy Halloween because the magic is still working.
Laterzzz...
