We’re in October and in a few weeks my favourite festival of all time will be occuring: Halloween or Samhain’s Eve!
Without beating about the bush, let me tell you the problem: here, we never celebrate Halloween. It’s just not part of our cultures as in Mauritius we are most of the Asian origins. In addition to that, on Monday I started my O-level exams and that’s why I might not be posting much (I’m soo sorry for that!) and I will be taking part in these international exams until November 15 (arg!!). The horrible thing is that on October 31 I will have to sit at 2 examinations!!!
When I was young I always tried to celebrate Halloween by myself. I would beg my father to buy some black paper so that I could cut a witch’s hat for this special day. When we had to go out on this date, I would always put on black witchy clothes (I didn’t care whether everyone stared at me and I still don’t) and last year I was having fun making bracelets and especially that I discovered that it was mainly a Celtic festival which celebrated New year… I also came to go to stay at a hotel with my best friend! It was a fun New Year’s Eve!
But this year with so much to revise and with exams filling my whole Samhain’s Eve day, I feel lost. I’ve never missed celebrating a Celtic festival and especially Halloween.
Do you have some suggestions for me? As it will be on a Monday everyone will be at work or a school or at home revising etc… then also I will come home late… Of course I will do my Parshall to replace my old one, but I’d really like to feel the magic of the celebration again this year…
Feel free to share your suggestions and also I’d love to know how you celebrate Halloween 🙂
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Aww thank you so much!
Hmmm…maybe one of your friends or even you could put on a small costume party during the weekend? I know I will probably celebrate on that Saturday before halloween, maybe on that Monday too but most likely not. A small intimate party is fun because it wont get out of hand and you can eat lots of candy/treats/watch movies/make crafts etc! Haha obviously that is what I love to do.
A few halloweens ago, being a young and excited college freshman I went to a party and drank too much and had a bad night. So last year I just hung out with a few friends and we carved pumpkins, watched horror films, and ate so much candy! It was really fun and much more memorable than a drunken black out.
Our friend group is planning on being all of the characters from The Avengers. I am going to be Thor!! I have to figure out my costume still but I can’t wait!
Hope this helps in some way. Don’t miss out on such a cool amazing holiday!
Great! Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
Here in Scotland – a Celtic country you will agree – a whole welter of folk and other traditions has disappeared under commercial pressure and the influence of American culture. Within my lifetime the High School ‘Sixth Form Dance’ has been replaced by the ‘Senior Prom’ complete with middle-class parents buying expensive gowns and hiring limousines for their little princesses – that’s an example of the cultural swamping. Halloween has gone the same way. I doubt that in its present state it would be recognisable even to the Irish migrants who took it to America generations ago. Now it has re-crossed the Atlantic and has washed up in our Celtic country, complete with pumpkins – not native to our land – and the alien cry of ‘Trick or Treat!’ Meanwhile it has also become a commercial festival, pumpkin-themed window displays are in all the shops. This is no surprise as every festival is now a commercial festival – I saw my first Christmas TV ad last night, October 12th!
The Scottish tradition of ‘guising’ where children dress outlandishly and go from door to door to enjoy the hospitality of the neighbours in their town has a long (and now almost forgotten) history. Maybe there are echoes of it in ‘Trick or Treat’ but to me the latter is more ‘Mickey Mouse’ than ‘Oor Wullie’. So what I’m going to do is forget all about Halloween, ignore it completely…
Instead I shall wait for Hogmanay, pit awn ma auld claes insidie-oot, blacken ma face wi’ soot, and gang frae door tae door, singing:
“Rise up, guidwife, an’ shak yer feathers,
Dinna think that we are beggers –
We’re guid children come tae play,
Rise up an’ gie’s oor hogmanay.
Oor feet are cauld, oor shoon are thin,
Gie’s a piece an’ let us in.
Yer drawer’s fu’ o’ money,
Yer bottle’s fu’ o’ beer –
Rise up and gie’s oor hogmanay,
An’ we’ll wish ye a Happy New Year!”
M
Thank you for reading my blog and for sharing your opinions, but honestly I don’t agree with forgetting Halloween. I am aware that ‘tradition’ has become ‘commerce’ and ‘profits’ but the Celtic traditions haven’t died completely, I’m sure many will celebrate Halloween the way it deserves. Halloween is Samhain’s Eve and is like 31st December when we all wait for midnight to celebrate New Year. I don’t think I can ignore the most important Celtic festival in the Celtic calendar. I always try to honour it; to honour the old ways… Forgetting isn’t a way to make traditions come back. Instead you should share what you know about these to everyone you know, on the internet… In addition, isn’t it exciting to wait for midnight, for the darkest hour when the veil between the other worlds and ours are the thinnest? 🙂
Of course I’m only half serious – I have written so much about folk customs (in another blog somewhere – I’ll find you the links some time) that I can hardly be accused of lack of respect for tradition. However any traces of our ‘Oidhche Shamhna’ japes and jaunts are now submerged in the transatlantic mush and I seriously do not have the heart for it. I’m afraid I don’t have enough belief in bauchles and such so no, the ‘darkest hour’ you speak of doesn’t mean much to me.
Here in Scotland our big celebration is still Hogmanay, and it’s the one which means most to me. When it comes, I know that the nights are really not going to get any darker. It has no supernatural connotations, it feels totally natural and deeply personal. So that’s the one I celebrate from choice.
But anyhow, you go out and have some fun. Enjoy yourself in the way that suits you.
Here’s an old Halloween custom from the Hebridean islands – the ‘Innse Gall’ – off our western coasts, especially for you. Take two nuts – it doesn’t matter what kind of nuts as long as they are still in their shells, and throw them on the fire. Think as hard as you can about your current partner or your future spouse. If both nuts crack at the same time your future together will be calm and harmonious. If they crack separately, beware! The road ahead will be rocky.
🙂
M
Oh I see. So everyone has his own most important festival then 🙂 In my country we are multicultural so I guess our most important part of the year is 31 Dec to Jan 1 for New Year.
Thanks for the suggestion. That sound fun! ^^
Fireworks watching is one of my favorite Hallowe’en activities. Trick or treating not so much, LOL, I can never decide if I want to be a bunny in sleeper pj’s with feet in them or a gypsy, wait. I think I’m somewhat of a gypsy spirit already, LOL. Still, it can be fun to give goodies out to little ones, so cute and excited at your door… Was thinking of going to the local pub with friends this year who like to dress up in costume for the occassion but I don’t think I will now. Just not sure if I even want to go anywhere or do anything. Studying or doing exams sounds just fine to me. Very productive and time well spent. Maybe I shall simply read a very literary book while thinking of you sitting your exams 🙂 See you when we can, best of luck with your studies, Daphnee!
Thank you for such a supportive comment Aurora 🙂 at least I’ll try to stay awake til the darkest hour when the veil between the other worlds and ours is the thinnest: at midnight… 🙂
Good luck on your exams! I live in Ohio and we dress our kids up and parade them around door to door for candy, pencils, erasers..any kid thing really. My hubby takes them out and I stay home and pass out candy. The kids really look forward to it. What country do you live in, btw?
Thanks! That’s great 🙂 I live in Mauritius, a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean.