EDITOR – The letter ‘ Helloween’ published on your letters page last week refers.
I was born in Scotland and introduced to the Lylesland Presbyterian Church of Scotland parish church’s cradle roll when I was two.
My father was a church elder. The church had both a senior and junior Sunday school and also a Girl Guide and Brownie troop. Every Halloween, each one held a separate costume party in the Rowan Street church halls. This was great because it meant I went to two Halloween parties each year. The Reverent MacDonald himself made an appearance at each one to adjudicate the best costume and hand out the prizes. Guess what? The sky didn’t fall and we didn’t become mass murderers.
As children we were told not to peep out the windows on Halloween, as witches were abroad and would snatch us away. What a wonderful frisson of fear we felt. However we were safe if we went out in disguise. We went out ‘guising’, going round the neighbourhood asking for ‘our Halloween’. No threats, no coercion and in return we had to perform. Recite a poem, sing a song or perform a skit.
So what if it is a throwback to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain? This was a’ harvest home’ festival and the treats my mother made reflected this. Toffee apples, creamy Tablet and her two big baking bowls filled with hazelnuts and peanuts in their shells. We played bobbing (or dooking) for apples.
Last week I watched a very interesting programme on the Mexican Day of the Dead. This is a very important day for the native peoples. No longer allowed to dig up their loved ones and wash and paint the bones, sugar skulls and skeletons abound. Altars are set up to honour their dead and special foods laid out. I especially liked the Day of the Dead bread with the little human head peeking out of it. What is wrong with that?
It was the Spanish monks who made them change the day to All Soul’s Day. Just as the early Christian missionaries from Ireland forced the change in Scotland to match one of their festivals.
As Hamlet said, “there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy”.
You sign yourself ‘Evil Lives’ and I would agree with you – it lives in the petty, narrow confines of the minds of people like you.
LINDA VAN TONDER
