Halloween / Trick or Treat is kinda tricky in Alaska. Last night we got four inches of snow and it was 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Usually the snow has fallen by a week earlier, but the east coast stole it all this year. Trick or treating outside has much less impact than in other parts of the continent due to parka's and boots covering up the costumes.
Add that to the fact that the Sands house, being a fairly conservative religious one, doesn't do Halloween at all and it makes for an empty night for kids on our block. To facilitate kids who wanna beg for candy the local phone company, Alaska Communications, hosts a Trick or Treat Town in their rather massive warehouse so the kiddies can come into a warm building and show their costumed best while going "door to door" through a few score or so booths spouting the obligatory "Trick or Treat" (our Boy Scout Troop 104 gets to be the janitorial staff in exchange for a donation). Being that it is in a warehouse and there are police and private security patrolling, egging and other pranks are pretty limited.
In spite of the fact that the Sands clan was all at church holding our own Halloween alternative ("Hallelujah Night" - demons, monsters, and serial killers highly discouraged) we got home about 10 pm to discover that despite our porch light being off, the fish tanks visible in the front window were enough to have attracted a copious amount of attention as attested to a major highway's worth of foot prints tracked through the otherwise fresh snow leading to our front door.
Sorry to disappoint kiddies.
When my wife first came over from Korea she nearly freaked seeing people dressed as ghouls and zombies and witches back in the 80's. Her grandmother (Halmonim) had been a shamanist leader in their home town who converted to Christianity in the early 70s and then lead the whole town that direction, forbiding such pagan practices as much as possible. My wife was scared even to go outside, perhaps thinking the shamanist hold outs had come to get her, as she was the first convert in the family and led her Halmonim to Christ.
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Tuesday, November 1, 2011
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As a devout Catholic who attended parochial school for nearly 18 years (yes, college, too), we were always taught that Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve, was a celebration before the somber Catholic Day of the Dead or All Soul's Day, then later All Saint's Day, where Catholics remembered those in their families who died before them. Costumes were worn to scare away the evil spirits who might linger. Yes,it has been commercialized, much like Christmas and Easter, but it had humble religious beginnings.
ReplyDeleteGood input Nancy. It is amazing how so many things that start off as religious holidays end up having their roots forgotten, replaced by $$$ instead.
ReplyDeleteWe lived in Ireland some years ago, and Oct. 31 was a holy day, celebrated with mass and then a quiet family time. Nov. 1 was All Saints' Day.
ReplyDeleteIt is a far cry from the overly celebrated Halloween in California!