One more day til’ Halloween, Halloween, Halloween…
I’m at home by myself. Orange lights turned on. Halloween 3 playing in the background. Trying to mash all traditions into tonight. The wrong night. You see, it’s not just my favorite holiday. It’s a lifestyle. What started out focused around the dead, to me is a celebration of life. Everything has an enery on Halloween. There’s an electricity in the air that just makes me excited. I felt it as a kid, getting ready to trick or treat, and I feel it even more so as an adult who treats Halloween like most people treat Christmas. In my house, it’s a month long (sometimes longer) event that involves spooky decor, horror film marathons, and anything shaped like a bat or pumpkin. This year though feels different. For starters, I uprooted my Pittsburgh bred, New York refined, over the knee boot wearing, pumpkin spiced ass to Florida; The land of hoodies in 70 degree weather. It’s weird.
My pale complexion and love of all things dark feel just slightly out of place everywhere I go, like an alien, or a black friend in an otherwise all white sitcom.
But it’s not just the heat wave or my look that feels strange. There aren’t any leaves falling around me, and the crisp fall air hasn’t come down here. I want to find a hay ride or a pumpkin patch, but I can’t even bring myself to order my coffee un-iced. It feels like a July afternoon every time I step outside. All of this in mind, I still fight it. After all, every day is Halloween when you have the heart of Wednesday Addams and the face of someone who is continually unimpressed with life. But my guy found himself a Halloween centric job, and I started a new one, so guess who has off for the favored holiday? No one. I’m numbly scrolling through pictures of all of your costumes on my social media timelines, But I don’t have one. For the first year in forever. No weekend plans. No day of plans. No last minute plans. But here’s what I do have.
I have a glass of wine and this blog. And I’ve got some Halloween facts for you that maybe you don’t know.
So allow me to to enlighten you. Halloween originated as the Celtic festival of SAMHAIN, which marked the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. (The darker half of the year). It was believed that on this night, the curtain between the living and the dead was lifted, allowing the spirits of the dead to walk among the living.Wearing costumes and lighting bonfires were originally a way to ward off the dead. It was believed that ghosts took on a grotesque look, so by wearing grotesque masks you could “trick” (eyyy-oh) a ghost into thinking you were one of them. You know, cuz the spiritual world is stupid. Carving grotesque faces into gourds and placing them outside your house also became tradition. While today, it’s popular to carve a pumpkin, The Celtics used turnips. Do you even know how terrifying a turnip-o-lantern is?
Yikes
Anyway, as Christianity swept through Europe like a plague, the church would purposely move a Christian holiday to a date that collided with a pagan holiday. With no room for opposing views, they soon marked the day after October 31 as All Saints Day, a solemn holy day of remembrance. (Cuz god knows we need more of those). The day before became known as All Hallows’ Eve, which changed to Hallowe’en, and finally stuck as what you know it as today: Halloween. So there you have it. A pagan holiday, centered around nature and changing seasons, all of the things we actually see and feel around us, forcibly turned into a Christian holiday, and finally celebrated in the most American way I can think of: drunken debauchery.
One Christian article I read in the name of research, recommends approaching Halloween with caution, stating that the worst threats are pranksters and vandals, (Great band name) and encourages you to host a Halloween party of your own, and use it as an opportunity to tell families about Jesus and your church instead.
Ah! A Trick! Perhaps the ultimate trick of them all: Propaganda masked and disguised as a fun holiday party.
It reminds me of my favorite treat as a kid. I think back fondly to the days of trick or treating, dressed as a pirate or whatever thing I was into that year, walking innocently up to a house with a pillowcase in hand, reaching out, trusting good neighbors to give me delicious candy, only to be met with those little booklets of horror from Chick Publications. Written under the guise of love for Christ, these comics tackled the hard topics like Homosexuality, Opposing Religions, and Sports! I want to say these surprises were worse than pretzels or the occasional apple, but even as a kid I didn’t give up an opportunity to do a dramatic reading, and these things begged to be mocked.
I’m sorry. What did you just make my 9 year old self read?
So I guess when it comes down it, Halloween is much like anything else. A watered down mashup of a few different origin stories, different maybe to each person celebrating. To me, it’s the highlight and focal point of the year, and even though I’m in a rut this year, it’s ok because I don’t let it end with October. If you really keep the spirit of Halloween in your heart, it’s with you all year round. And maybe my 85 degree, pool side and palm tree Halloween is really just another version of all of my Halloween’s past. It may not be the best I’ve ever had, but at least it’s here. So whether you’re worshiping the devil this Halloween or blacking out somewhere dressed as a rodent (but like, sexy…) have a blast. And remember, the more you sin on Halloween, the more you can ask forgiveness for on Sunday. (And participation is everything in the Catholic Church.)
Til next time,
🔪Madame of Horror
Madame of Horror 
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