Unearthing the Overlooked

Another Halloween has come and gone. Costumes have been put away, spider webs and skeletons are being taken down from houses, and people are very likely recovering from a night of celebrating and eating copious amounts of candy. In hindsight, though, the holiday strikes me as a bit odd. Halloween is one of the few days in America each year where trickery, scaring, and disguising oneself are playfully celebrated.

This evening full of disguises seems to reflect the origins of Halloween. A recent BU Today article said that Halloween originated from a Celtic pagan celebration in the British Isles, called Samhain. It was the night when the spiritual world became closest to the physical world, and treats were offered to appease spirits that would appear. When Christians arrived and interacted with the local people, they adapted it as the night before All Saints Day, or All Hallows Eve. When Irish immigrants brought the tradition to America, it eventually became the phenomenon of costumes and trick-or-treating that we are familiar with now. The evening has evolved and changed, to the point where I wouldn’t recognize its history just by watching everyone wander from house to house.

Why am I talking about this now, the day after Halloween has ended? To be frank, because I was surprised to learn the history. Where this strange, fun time of the year came from was always something I had overlooked and taken for granted as a child. I saw it as a time where I would either put on a costume and go trick-or-treating, or as the night where I’d sit outside my home and hand out candy, admiring the various creative costumes people wore. It’s also really interesting to consider how a cultural and religious celebration developed into something so commercialized. The bat and pumpkin decorations have been in stores for some time over the past few weeks, and I’m almost certain I’ll still see candy being sold for a few more days.

With all this said, I’m not discouraging anyone from finding or making a disguise, carving Jack-o-lanterns and hanging up decorations, or going from house to house. But I do think it is important to realize where such traditions come from. For instance, I learned very recently that pretzels come from a German tradition. They represent the crossed arms of a person in prayer. I’ve eaten pretzels for most of my life not knowing this, and that piece of history, for one thing, is really cool! It also reminds me not to take my own faith traditions for granted as I interact with those of other people. There is a rich well of meaning buried under the things we do and see. This does not mean that every small gesture has to contain some religious significance. But we can become aware of and seek out the ones that do. When this happens, I believe that for a brief instant the world of the Spirit touches the world of the everyday. That contact can happen at any time of year, and encountering it is  startling, yet truly inspiring.

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