By Ken Marks[Originally posted on The Scratching Post one month ago today, on October 23, 2021. Extracted here by permission of the author.]
Now and then I’m accused, usually for goods reasons, of being insensitive. At the year’s end, when the subject of new year’s resolutions comes up, I don’t write anything down, but I remind myself that insensitivity is a demon I haven’t exorcised. It’s a lifelong struggle.
 |
| Putting on a show |
I sense you doubting me....
[Read the whole thing on The Scratching Post.]
| Copyright © 2021 by Ken Marks Ken Marks was a contributing editor with Paul Clark & Tom Lowe when “Moristotle” became “Moristotle & Co.” A brilliant photographer, witty conversationalist, and elegant writer, Ken contributed photographs, essays, and commentaries from mid-2008 through 2012. Late in 2013, Ken birthed the blog The Scratching Post. He also posts albums of his photos on Flickr. |
I regret being off-duty during October, so that I couldn’t give you this extract before Halloween 2021. But some scary holidays are yet to come before January 1, so go “read the whole thing” while there’s still some 2021! (And look forward to Michael H. Brownstein’s “Santa Claus Visits the Projects” on December 5 – from his teaching book.)
ReplyDeleteI admit to being a bit confused as to how you reached your conclusions. Your history of the Celtic New Year is mostly accurate, but it was far more complicated than you present. From midnight on Oct 31 (not the same date then obviously) to sunrise on Nov 1, the dead could revisit, and mostly it was families sitting around the fire with goodies they know their dead family and friends liked, hoping for Grandma or Uncle Horace to make an appearance. It was common for the adults, or even a single adult in a village, to dress up and make visits, just like Dad plays Santa. But a warrior who had killed a fearsome enemy would fear his return, to haunt the warrior for killing him. This could be prevented if the warrior "held the head of the dead man under his hand", a belief that led to the habit of making a drinking cup from the dead man's skull. This was not mocking the dead hero but respecting (and fearing) him. Were the dead man a great hero, highly feared, the winner might preserve his entire body in cedar oil for extra protection. Their belief in Annwn (anoon), a reciprocal other world where when you died here you went there, and when you died there you came back here,was so strong that they would accept promise of payment of a loan in the next life! I did the Christmas thing for a while but Halloween is my favorite time. 99.99% of the kids I've hosted over the years loved every second of it. I put on such a show that kids who came twent and thirty years ago now bring their kids and grandkids. I loved it when this nice Bible-thumping lady told me Halloween was pagan, when she keeps a Christmas village in her porch year round! I thought to deconstruct Christmas for her as the Norse mythology of Yggdrasil, the Tree of Life, top in the heavens, trunk in this world and roots in the world below, under which were "gifts" such as honor, courage, and racial purity.(The Germanic tribes were fanatically racist). Or that Easter is the celebration of Oestra, or Astarte, goddess of fertility in humans and livestock and good harvests, whose symbols included rabbits and eggs. Her worship was big in Spain, once known as Iberia (land of rivers) but became known later as Espania (land of rabbits). I realized it would do no good.I know it's a pagan holiday, and I'm proud of it. Other pagan celebrations, usually marking key astronomical and seasonal events, were sufficiently plastered over with a single celebration of Christ, or the Ascension, or even some minor saint, but this one is "ALL Saints Day"!! It took every one of them to cover up this one glaring mismatch with Christainity: "It is given man but once to die, then Judgement." NO WAY they could let reincarnation of any kind survive the new religion, and they called out all the troops to prevent it. Perhaps you were terrorized as a child? I loved being scared as a kid, when I knew it was all in fun, although I am a million miles from your thrill-seeking adrenaline junkie.
ReplyDeleteThanks for adding details about the origin of Halloween. The summary version I offered was only to provide contrast to what we stage today, an extravagant entertainment for children that is far more frightening than it needs to be. My focus wasn’t on ancient culture but on how a tradition has metamorphosed into a competition to induce fear and simultaneously congratulate ourselves for exemplary parenting.
DeleteAnd yes, as a small child I was scared shitless in a Halloween funhouse. There’s no reason why anyone should take my thesis seriously.