THIS week is full of incidents world-wide. A quick whip-round produces the Hindu celebration of Diwali, Guy Fawkes, Halloween, the Chinese Festival of Ghosts. All of these have their genesis in the Northern Hemisphere's end of the lunar year, the end of the harvest and the change of season to the dread cold darkness of winter (as all South African expats will tell you with a shiver). And if you have been paying attention you will know that they all are centred around lights and fireworks.
In the Southern Hemisphere the main event, naturally-speaking, is the beginning of the summer rains: a mixed blessing as the rains signal crop-planting but also the possibility of floods. (On a topical note, perhaps: Durban has just experienced the heaviest rain in six years. No, my roof did not leak after six years of plugging holes in the ceiling, but the rising water swept through the house and I am writing this while drifting gently downstream on my orthopedic cushion, feet held up above the ripples).
But back to ceremonies. The most curious is Halloween: what started as an ancient religious ceremony has now become an excuse for a party. Nothing wrong with that, I hasten to add, but it is strange how traditions have become embedded in the modern-day commercial festivities without many people knowing how they arose.
Where did it all start? The ancient Celts celebrated October 31st as the end of the lunar year and Samhain (end of summer). On that night, as the story goes, the boundary between the living and the dead became blurred and spirits would come down to earth and do mischief. As darkness fell, people extinguished their hearth fires and put on disguises to confuse those naughty spirits. The Druids built huge bonfires where all the memories of the old year (chaff from the harvest, old bones – hence 'bone fire') were burnt to ashes. Once the flames began to die down, people took embers from the sacred fire to relight their hearth fires for the new year.
When the Romans came along in A.D. 43, they found it quite convenient to add their own ceremonies: one called Feralia, which celebrated their dead (a custom adopted from the ancient Egyptians); and the other which honoured Pomona, the Roman goddess of the harvest. Her symbol was the apple, which is why apples are closely connected to Halloween.
Then it was the turn of the Christians. Pope Gregory I in about AD 835 tried to supplant this old pagan festival with All Saints Day, or All Hallows, to honour the saints. The night before was All-Hallows Even, eventually Halloween. The day after would become All Souls Day, a day to honour the dead.
These three days, celebrated very similarly to Samhain with bonfires, parades, dressing up as saints, angels and devils, (to blend in with the real saints, angels and devils that were stalking the earth – some pagan beliefs don't die out easily) were called Hallowmas. Because the devils were prone to knocking on people's doors and demanding a bribe in order to prevent mayhem (nowadays it's called 'insurance'), it didn't take long for children to get in on the act and do the same – hence 'trick-or-treating'.
Then the Scots got involved. In their version, they believed that that the spirits could be scared away by putting a carved, hollowed, lit-up turnip or mangelwurzel in the window. An offering of food was placed outside the door to distract them further. Children would be protected from harm by 'disguising' them as ghosts and witches.
The English, being Protestant, had no need for a saints' day. Instead, they built bonfires on this day to burn effigies of the Pope, just to prove a point. Once Guy Fawkes had been executed for plotting to blow up the Houses of Parliament with King James inside (he was rather rabidly anti-royalist) the two ceremonies were conflated and poor old Guy ended up on top of the bonfire.
Halloween was taken to the USA by Irish emigrants who fled the potato famine in 1845. The American pumpkin was perfect for the Jack o' Lantern (named for a hard-drinking Irish farmer called Jack who tricked the devil into paying for his drinks and was subsequently cursed to wander the earth forever). Halloween remained a quaint Irish festival until canny American merchandisers saw a huge opportunity to fill the empty space before Christmas. And how right they were: Halloween is now the third-most profitable holiday for supermarkets in the US (worth 5 billion dollars).
Halloween is also celebrated in Mexico, Latin America and Spain, although in typical Hispanic fashion this festival of the dead – El Dia de Los Muertes - can include tequila and a mariachi band!
As far as South Africa is concerned, if we ever adopted Halloween bonfires, the first person I would put on top would be the chap who did my flood-proofing…
