Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2002 - 11:28 p.m.

I wrote this for my college magazine, but it's not getting put in it (seeing as it's Halloween tomorrow and we haven't finished).. and I thought I'd put it here.

so.. yes.

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So, Halloween. It’s the one day of the year when you’re allowed (if you really really want to) to go around knocking on people’s doors wearing bizarre costumes and asking for stuff.

Or, more accurately, it’s the only time of year when you’re allowed to ask for stuff while dressed like Satan’s personal assistant, and will probably get it.

Halloween makes people stupid, and generous, and is that special occasion beloved of the evil, greedy child in all of us. Apart from those of us (and I’m sure there are some) who went (or possibly still go) around dressed as firemen, and fairies, and gave little thank you notes to the kind, yet horribly old, people who gave them a shiny penny. They don’t really deserve anything, they spoil the entire point of this great day. But still, they get it anyway, so my observation becomes as pointless as all the ones before it.

The tradition of Halloween (and if I don’t pull this off properly it’ll be horribly, horribly, painfully boring) goes back thousands of years, and has gathered influences from many cultures (like… the Romans, and the Celts, and the Christians) in some way.

The probably dark tale of Halloween begins thousands of years ago, with the Celts. They worshipped nature, and had lots of gods, and stuff like that. On October 31st, the Druids (Celtic priests) would sacrifice crops and animals, and dance around a fire, and wait for their season of the sun to pass over to their season of the darkness and cold. They were very creative with their names, the Celts were.

But yes, the point of this little Celtic thing is to get to the bit about the what the fires did, which was keep homes warm. And keep them free from evil spirits. The three days after this, the Celts went dancing around in a big festival called Samhain, where they wore skins and heads of animals. Which ties into the Halloween thing quite nicely. Possibly.

Then the Romans, who invaded Britain, and brought with them Pomona Day. Pomona Day was named after the goddess of fruits and gardens. This got screwed up with the Samhain somehow, and suddenly fruits and flowers were a part of it, and the whole thing was just one big special occasion taking place in the back end of October.

And then the Christians. They were newcomers to Europe, and hadn’t yet had the chance to add the all needed sinister twist to Halloween. But they came, and made November 1st a special church holiday, All Saint’s Day, or All Hallows. It had big bonfires, parades, people dressing up as angels and devils, and was all about honouring the dead. And then this got mixed into the bizarre blend of customs already around at this time. Yay!

So the Celts started off the dancing around in stupid costumes, and the black cats, and the magic/evil spirits/killing things, the Romans gave us the giving of cheap stuff that can be picked from a garden (modern equivalent: found on floor somewhere) and the Christians gave us the ghosts, and dancing skeletons, and little demonic children that we love to see in our Halloween.

So, next time you’re sat at home reminiscing about all those past Halloweens when you could’ve been doing something other than watching some unscary, boring horror film, try to think about me, sat here, writing out all this ‘information’ that isn’t actually all that interesting when you get down to it, and wondering: what exactly is the point in any of this?

I’m tired and have a headache, go make yourself a banana costume and ask strangers for food.

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I'll try for a decent entry.. later.