Halloween has come and gone again. As usual I ignored it. This for me isn't at all difficult since there is nothing in me that really resonates with this festival. I think my Christian faith has a lot to do with this, as well as my age and maybe some facets of my personality. I do find it interesting though especially with the way it has taken off as a major celebration, next to Christmas in its impact and popularity. Since I was young more and more adults have been moving in on the action and now it seems that almost everyone wants to get dressed up as something and go out and party, get drunk or high and make a lot of noise and cause a general public nuisance.
I used to eagerly look forward to Halloween every year when I was a kid. It was the free candy of course. Almost every year our father would dress my brother and me like hoboes, daubing our faces with soot from the fireplace and dressing us in his oversize old clothes. It was fun and on years when it wasn't raining that night we would have a bonfire in our huge back yard where we would roast potatoes and set off fireworks. That was one of those gentler and simpler eras when neighbours tended to know and trust each other.
When I became a Christian I didn't need to be told that Halloween wasn't appropriate. I already knew. There was something about flirting with death, ghosts, zombies, witches and ghouls that didn't square with the beautiful sense of light, brightness, joy, love and peace that I was experiencing during the salad days of my faith. Only when I was nineteen and voluntarily far from my faith did I actually dress up and go out haunting the clubs with friends in Toronto. It was fun, sort of, but then my faith and I sort of rediscovered each other and away went the interest. No one told me that now that I was following the Lord I was not allowed to engage with Halloween. There simply was no longer the desire or the taste for it. By the same token I take care not to judge those Christians or people of faith who still enjoy their Halloween. It is a matter of each to their own, with respect.
When I became an Anglican in my mid-twenties I became acquainted with All Saints Day and All Souls Day. That was when I began to see Halloween in context. It became for me not the Celtic autumn festival when the barrier between the living and the dead becomes suddenly porous and thin, but the eve of preparation for celebrating all the saints of God who had gone before us and now stand with us in the unseen supporting and praying for us. The following day, All Souls, November 2 became a time to commemorate the dead, our loved ones, our dear departed ones. I was already working in palliative care and then my maternal grandfather passed away, and then some friends, other family and All Souls took on a solemn but majestic significance.
As people close to me died I became increasingly aware of them in the unseen, sometimes they would visit and speak to me in my dreams, sometimes I have felt and still feel their presence and a sense of what they are communicating to me. This barrier for me has become indeed porous and thin.
I have more recently become familiar with the Mexican Day of the Dead or El Dia de Los Muertos and this is a fun and joyous time, November 1 and 2. It is like many Mexican customs and festivals a blend of Aztec and Catholic practices. The dead are celebrated with an altar covered with a colourful cloth and decorated with candles, photos of the departed loved ones, their favourite liquor and sweets and treats and flowers. Marigolds are particularly popular and during this time public parks, gardens and walkways are lined with marigolds. Skulls are popular, either ceramic skulls beautifully painted or candy and chocolate skulls as treats. There are also cut outs and drawings of skeletons in fancy old fashioned clothing. It is a time of celebration, joy, feasting and dancing. It is a time to laugh death in the face.
Even though I enjoyed the opportunity of celebrating El Dia de los Muertos during my first visit to Mexico City it still hasn't really stuck with me though there is one thing that is certain: I greatly prefer it over Halloween.
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