Halloween Are You For Real?

That was the title of a book we had when we were kids. It was all about, you guessed it, Halloween: its origins, its significance, its meaning. That book influenced my brothers and I (it was a kids' book) to assent to and agree with my parents' decision to stop celebrating Halloween when I was eight years old or so.

The statement that I don't like Halloween, I don't celebrate it, and I don't necessarily want my kids (when and if they ever exist) to participate has led to some surprise and some disagreement on occasion and the decision has led to some sincere questioning of why I feel this way about such a seemingly harmless kids' holiday.

At the Naval Academy, Halloween was one of the biggest nights of the year. The usually restrained student body cast off the shackles of uniforms and propriety and indulged in one evening of costumed make-believe. There were the usual costume contests and trick-or-treat and even our fair share of ghosts and goblins. My Plebe year it was a real struggle for me over whether I would participate. But before I discuss my decision, I need to be clear on how I feel about October 31st.

A Hallowed Day

So, a lot of people basically know where Halloween came from, but for those of you who don't, or those of you who need some refreshing on the topic, here goes. November first is All Saints' Day, the day of the year when the church celebrates the lives of all of the saints. It was considered one of the most important holidays of the year, after Christmas and Easter.

The word "holiday" as you may surmise, comes from "holy day," or "hallowed day," a day of the year meant to be a celebration of holy principles and Christian faith. Now it also means Left-Handers' Day and Take Your Daughters to Work Day, but it used to have a very significant meaning. Well, Halloween was originally "All Hallow's Eve.” "All Hallow's" of course a reference to all who were holy, all the saints. Over time, it was shortened to Hallow's Eve and eventually Halloween. That's etymology, kids.

Okay, so, in preparation for All Saints' Day, people assumed that Satan wouldn't just let a super holy holiday go off without a hitch. The belief was that the night before, demons and devils would venture forth to torment people and to ruin the next day's sanctity.

We all know that a rubber mask from Spencer’s can always fool demons and our ancestors were equally aware of this fact. So, it became custom to dress as demons or ghosts or what have you to avoid the roaming mischief of the devils. After all, a good enough costume can hide you from immaterial spirits. Also, people used to leave out various items and stuff to ward off the demons: crosses, crucifixes, gift certificates to Best Buy, things like that. With some appeasement, the demons would leave people alone.

Well, people aren't stupid. They soon realized that by dressing up as demons, they could also fool people! And if someone was going to leave something out to appease the demons, and the demons weren't interested, why not take it yourself? In fact, why not cause a little mischief for those who didn't leave anything out? Serves 'em right, if you don't leave something out for the demons, they're gonna get you.

Okay, everyone see where this is going? Over time people realized that the demons weren't paying much attention to All Hallow's Eve, so why not move in on the territory? So "trick-or-treating" was born. Dress like a demon, ask for treats, if no one gives them to you, egg their house. And voila: Halloween.

Popcorn in the Basement

Okay, fast forward several hundred years to Annapolis, Maryland, sometime in the 1980's. Growing up my brothers and I did Halloween stuff every year. The costumes, the candy, the parade of dressed up kids at school. Despite a small neighborhood and limited prospects for candy, we gave it our best shot until sometime around 2nd or 3rd grade. Then Mom and Dad changed their mind.

Halloween, though seemingly harmless, glorifies the attitudes of All Hallow's Eve in its traditions and customs. The pranks, the costumes, the greedy kids begging strangers for candy. "Yeah, but Graham, that's not what it's about now! People dress up as angels and doggies and Pokemon.” True, but you can't just look at what something means in contemporary culture. You have to look at where it came from, what it really glorifies, and whether you really want to have something to do with that.

Did my parents want my brothers and I to be part of holiday (used in the colloquial sense, not meaning "holy day") where begging for treats is acceptable? Where the slogan implies that if you don't give in to my desires, I'll mess with you or your house? Where things like ghosts, goblins, monsters, ghouls and witches are glorified and turned into symbols of mirth rather than acknowledged as symbols of the occult and disregard for God? Where the whole holiday grew from the idea of pacifying evil spirits rather than glorifying God?

You may think that this is old-fashioned and that no one sees this day as a celebration of the occult or as materialistic, and no one knows the roots; it's the modern meaning that has significance. Well, that's what we call a "logical fallacy.” It's as if you're saying: "Modern Nazis don't believe in genocide any more, why should the historical roots of National Socialism matter?” Too extreme? It's like saying Christmas is about Santa Claus rather than Jesus because modern society has decided it's so (newsflash: "Christmas" means "worship of Christ").

Simply because we attach a different significance to a holiday doesn't mean that that holiday's meaning has changed. We've simply modernized, sugar coated and commercialized Halloween. The day was supposed to prevent distraction from the importance of November first, whoops.

So, we stopped. Some churches in the area would have "Fall Festivals" or things like that, meant to put the importance back on November First and to celebrate the autumn season (which, by the way, doesn't exist in Pensacola), while holding costume contests for kids who felt left out of the Halloween thing. We did that a couple of times but eventually that stopped. So did going to school on Halloween. While the school was decked out with skeletons, witches, ghosts and jack-o-lanterns, Kyle, Ben and I stayed home to make caramel popcorn with Mom (so good, as long as you avoided the raisins). That night we'd turn the lights off in the house and watch a movie in the basement, passing the popcorn around and the uneaten raisins to Dad.

We had one Halloween decoration. A stuffed witch on a broomstick who looked remarkably like my mom. On this witch, we posted a sign: "The Witch of Endor, do not talk to her.” It's a reference to the book of Samuel where Saul the king of Israel, who is basically sucking at running a country, goes to a witch to get advice from the now-dead prophet Samuel. Samuel basically tells Saul that he's an idiot for consulting a medium and he should've sought God instead and he will lose his kingdom because of it, whoops.

The Witch who hung in our kitchen was reminder to us of what Halloween symbolized, and what we were avoiding by staying home with our family.

To Participate or Not to Participate

So, fast-forward again to October 31st, 2000. I was on the phone with my Mom, taking about Halloween. It was a pay phone somewhere, cause back then we didn't have phones in our rooms (that's another blog for another day). I asked her what to do about dressing up. When I told her that "everyone was doing it," I wasn't exaggerating. Four thousand college kids were running rampant in the mess hall, those with Black N's for misconduct wore their yellow sweaters for the only time that year (without fear of reproach that is), and everything from elaborate costumes to the water polo team's simple body paint-and-Speedo recipe, filled King Hall. I was in a bind.

Mom asked me a couple of questions: "Was there a glorification of witches, skeltons, demons or other things like that?” "No.” "Are people using this as an excuse to cause trouble? Or were they just using the rare occasion to dress up?” “ Well, the upperclass are talking about going to Plebes' rooms and trashing them if they don't give out candy, but mostly I think everyone wants to let their hair down and have a break from being a Mid.” “ Well, could you dress up and not participate in trick-or-treating and not feel like you were glorifying something unworthy of glorification?” That was a hard one.

Well, I resolved that I could dress up without fear of giving credit to something I didn't agree with. The holiday at the Academy was drawing on different reasons for celebration; it was break from the monotony of the military lifestyle, a chance to relax, to be creative in a school with no formal art, music or drama program, it was... it was... it was okay. But after dinner, no dressing up, no trick-or-treating, no more Halloween. I looked at it as the one chance I had to get into the Costume Box as a mid (more about what that is at the end of the post).

So for four years, that was that. A costume for dinner and then back to my room to study (or, more frequently, talk on IM). Of course, Plebe year I did have to defend my room from several upperclassmen who were pretty angry at the lack of candy, but after that year, I never took part in the post dinner festivities, aside from wandering around to see people's costumes. That may make me a hypocrite, but I still wonder whether I should have just said no and stayed in uniform.

Firstie year I dressed up as my awesome company officer, Lieutenant Vaas, while my friend Matt Mayer our company's chief, Senior Chief Woods. I had friends who were John Travolta and Samuel L. Jack son from "Pulp Fiction" (they were perfect), a friend who wore a truly bizarre homemade Trogdor costume, and a Plebe who dressed up as my best friend and one-time roommate Travis. It was a lot of fun, but because it was our only chance a year to be something else than students at a military college.

That may sound like support for the assertion that Halloween today doesn't mean the same thing it used to, but I don't think so. Halloween today is still about causing mischief, making light of the occult, asking for undeserved treats from strangers, and donning a costume to get what you want from someone. Besides, my participation in four Halloweens at the Academy could have been the wrong thing to do, I don't deny it.

But I don't regret not participating in Halloween growing up, not at all. And if I had it to do over again, maybe I never would have participated growing up or in college.

Having More Fun

Other kids didn't have more fun than us, one Halloween we watched "Black Beauty," a truly crappy movie that has produced several of the most long-standing jokes in our family, plus skipping school is way better than any in-school party ever could be. Other kids didn't have more candy than us either, that popcorn meant that we would be up late causing hyperactive mischief in the house, plus we'd been sneaking caramel all day while making the popcorn. Other kids didn't get to play with cool costumes more either. Mom and Dad were smart enough to save all their crazy clothes from the 70's. They had everything from military uniforms to hospital scrubs to bell-bottoms and wigs, and any time we wanted, we would pull out the costume box and pretend to be something else: a doctor, hippie, a pilot, but never a ghost or ghoul. I need to get back in that box; I bet there's some cool stuff in there. We didn't have to run around asking for treats from strangers and threatening mischief (whether real, or in most cases, purely hypothetical), to celebrate the holiday.

So in my home, when I have one of my own, it'll be the same thing. All Hallow's Eve started as a way to avoid the demons and distractions that would take away from the holy day of November first, and watching movies and eating popcorn in the basement accomplished that better than trick-or-treating ever could.