Yesterday was Halloween. The night when ghosts and other, not-so-living creatures are up to mischief. According to the ancient Celts, on this night the boundary between the world of the living and the dead blurs, and the spirits of the dead return to earth.
A long time ago, the Celts lived where Ireland, England and northern France are today, and on October 31st they celebrated Samhain, the beginning of the Celtic year.
Since the doors to the world of the dead are open on Celtic New Year’s Eve, they feared that not only friendly souls would visit. Therefore, the Celts dressed themselves in scary and frightening costumes to drive away evil spirits and demons.
About 2,000 years have passed since then, and the scary costumes are still practiced. Only today, the spooky figures go door to door begging for candy. This custom is called “trick or treating,” and it’s especially popular with us children.
Miss Kitten, Sixten, and I were also out and about, and we looked absolutely spooky. I actually wanted to dress up as the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz, but then I decided to wander through the night as a gothic doll. I find dolls so creepy!
Even Sixten, who initially refused to dress up and come with us, was eventually persuaded and transformed into a terrifying bedsheet ghost! 👻
Sixten is totally against Halloween because he clearly believes that the whole spooky celebration these days is only organized so that greedy people can make billions by selling plastic junk and other rubbish.
Unfortunately, he’s probably not that far off the mark. I recently read that Americans spent nearly $500 million on costumes last year! These costumes weren’t for themselves or their children; they spent $500 million just on costumes to dress up their pets! How much did they spend on themselves, plus Halloween decorations? And that’s despite the fact that in the same country, around 40 million people live below the poverty line. If that’s true, then I understand why the ghosts are getting angry!
Sixten and I then got into quite a discussion. When Miss Kitten heard in the middle of it that the Celts dressed up in animal heads and skins during their Samhain celebrations and lit bonfires to burn grain and animals as sacrifices to their deities, the good mood was completely shattered.
You can probably imagine how upset Miss Kitten was! She was furious and scolded Sixten, saying it was much better when people dressed up with junk and garbage than with dead animals! Besides, she didn’t think her costume was kitschy at all – it was simply MA-GIC-AL!
After each of us had been angry at least once that evening, things calmed down, and I was able to persuade both of them to celebrate with the deceased. After all, a visit from beyond the grave doesn’t happen every day, and I like the idea of the living and the dead meeting and celebrating a joyful reunion. Because, to avoid spoiling the fun, I don’t want to believe that evil spirits are among them.
Halloween isn’t just about money. What began as Samhain migrated to America with the Irish, inspiring people of different backgrounds and faiths to unite their customs and celebrate a spooky yet joyful festival together. Perhaps you were even there!
…and who knows, maybe the Americans were inspired by the Swedes when they introduced trick-or-treating. There’s a similar Easter tradition here. Children dress up as påskkärringar (witch children). These are witches who travel to Blåkulla on Maundy Thursday to celebrate the Witches’ Sabbath with the devil. The witch children go door to door, distributing small pictures with Easter motifs and receiving sweets or other small gifts in return. The custom has existed since the 18th century, so it’s quite possible that it arrived in the Promised Land with the Irish.
I have no idea why demonized witches in Sweden knock on neighbors’ doors to wish them Happy Easter, or why the Celts thought demons and evil spirits would be afraid of their costumes, but Grandma Inga Fuchs once told me:
“There are many things and beings that frighten us because we perceive them but cannot see them clearly or explain them. The dark shadows of trees, death or the afterlife, the infinite universe, or the feeling of standing in an empty room and yet not being alone.
We can fear the strange and therefore disturbing throughout our lives, or we can approach it with open and friendly eyes. Our millennia of experience has proven this: How many evil spirits have you encountered? None. But how often, in the face of misfortune, have you been certain that unknown energies had brought you inexplicable good fortune? The unknown is what we think about it. We ourselves decide whether it is good or bad, beautiful or terrible, worthy of tears or laughter. ”
Grandma Fuchs probably rarely looked at me so seriously: “Just look at how the Mexicans celebrate their beloved dead on El Día de los Muertos. No one else graces death as charmingly as she does. When I leave, I wish that you remember me with joy. You shall dance, because I love you and carry you in my heart. .”
Some people deal with the unknown differently. The Catholic Church, for example, has a very different attitude toward joyful festivals of the dead and attempted to suppress the pagan customs of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day as early as 1,000 years ago. While joyful zombies and colorfully decorated skulls and skeletons revel in the festivities, the Church still celebrates All Saints’ Day in complete silence. Believing Christians are not allowed to be disturbed on this day.
Grandma Inga says both ways of dealing with death are important. You have to allow yourself to grieve. It’s a natural process. “But at some point it has to stop! We all have to die and then we’ll see each other again. .”
She’s probably right, you can overdo it with the mourning. Sixten told me that in some parts of Germany, there’s even a legal ban on dancing on November 1st!! I don’t know what to make of that. That’s a bit over the top with the devotion!
It is all the more ironic that the name Halloween is a short form of All Hallow’s Eve, the English name for the evening before All Saints’ Day.
So instead of All Hallows’ gloomy, we’re saying Happy Halloween! See you next year!
