HALLOWEEN

powered by ODEO

HISTORY

---

Halloweens origins bring us to a Pagan festival, celebrated among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish, Scots, Welsh and other immigrants were inspired by this tradition and exported it to North America in the 19th century. Other Western Countries started celebrating Halloween in the late 20th century.

The term Halloween- that was originally spelled more or less like Hallowe'en, - is a shortened form of All-hallow-even, (all hallows eve), as it is the evening before "All Hallows' Day" (also known as "All Saints' Day"(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween).

HALLOWEEN HISTORY IN NORTH AMERICA

---

Halloween became a holiday in America in the 19th century. Nearly two million people left Ireland and went to America as a consequence of the Irish Potato Famine (1845–1849)and brought the holiday and its customs there.

The Scottish migrating from the British Isles brought their own version of the holiday to North America.

Diring the 20th century in America, Halloween became one of the many, sad aspects of a growing consumerism, it all possibly began with Halloween postcards, which were indeed very popular between 1905 and 1915.

There is little information about the origins of masking or costuming on Halloween in America, or elsewhere, before 1900. Halloween costumes appeared in stores in the 1930s, while trick-or-treating became popular in the 1950s.

In the United States nowadays, Halloween is considered the sixth most important holiday, thanks to the economic income deriving from it.

In the 1990s many manufacturers began producing a larger variety of Halloween decorations, while in the previous years a large majority of decorations were homemade. Some of the most popular decorations are jack-o'-lanterns, scarecrows, witches, orange and purple string lights, inflatable decorations such as spiders, pumpkins, mummies, vampires and other monstrous creatures, and animatronic window as well as door decorations, foam tombstones and gargoyles. Candies and costumes are sold in large quantities. Halloween is marketed both to children and to adults.

Even though the practice of actually performing a trick if no treat is given has faded, the custom of children going "trick-or-treating" has become an established American tradition. Only in recent years have parents hesitated to send their children into the streets because of the increased danger of accidents, poisoned food, and menacing strangers.

Nonetheless, despite the dangers associated with trick-or-treating, Halloween is still celebrated. In fact, the night is the second most popular party night of the year (after December 31) for many adults who consider it as the one night of the year when they can dress up and act foolish.

HALLOWEEN IN ITALY

---

In Italy the celebration of Halloween is a very recent tradition. Indeed, in the last few years clubs have been organizing Halloween parties where people go disguised as witches, wizards, monsters and anything else. Moreover, more and more children every year go from house to house to play trick or treat, just like their Anglo-Saxon peers; in Italy this is called dolcetto o scherzetto.

Many people are getting involved in this celebration. Many families buy candies and biscuits and wait for children to knock on their doors on the evening of 31st October. In addition to that, most people light candles and you are likely to see pumpmkins on the windowsills. Teenagers and young people go to parties dressed like monsters and ghosts. This is quite unusual and exciting in Italy because it feels a bit like celebrating Carnival twice a year.

Although Halloween's recent success in Italy has been influenced by American traditions and advertisments, it is also true that similar celebrations for All Hallows' Eve existed in past centuries in ancient Italian folklore, as described by Italian scholars Eraldo Baldini and Giuseppe Bellosi in their book Halloween. Nei giorni che i morti ritornano.

As the newspaper Repubblica reported on 29th October 2006, in the days between 31st October and 11th November, St. Martin's Day, in many Italian regions children or poor people would pass from house to house asking for food and gifts; sometimes they were masked as ghosts or spirits. In some Sicilian villages, on the night between 1st and 2nd November the Dead would bring presents to children. In the Veneto and Lombardia regions people would carve pumpkins into a skull's face and put candles inside. These carved heads were then positioned on graves, bushes, walls and windowsills, in order to frighten the spirits.

IS HALLOWEEN ACTUALLY WELCOME IN ITALY?

Italy is a Country with a strong Catholic background. Many Catholic people - but also people who just want to protect local traditions and prevent foreign traditions from entering the Country - have been figthing hard against the "Halloween-mania". Halloween is a mark of heathenism, and contains dangerous magic and hesoteric aspects that usually go underestimated by normal people and kids celebrating Halloween without really knowing what they're doing. For information, one can read the book "Halloween, giù la maschera!" (in Italian) written by Giancarlo Padula and "La Faccia Nascosta di Halloween - come la festa della zucca ha sconfitto Tutti i Santi", by Damien Le Guay, a French philosopher who defines Halloween as a symbol of the new paganism. According to Le Guay, Halloween distorts reality and can have a threatening effect on the kids' mind. Also, Halloween has become a mere act of consumerism, one of the obsessive masks that help hiding the world's misery and despair. Many priests accuse Halloween of contaminating both the religious celebration of All Saints and the local Italian tradition that has nothing or little to do with Halloween, merely seen as an American product, like Coca-Cola and movies. To them, Halloween is a celebration based on a decaying "gout macabre" and on spiritism, it is a celebration of magic, and all magic is evil.

HALLOWEEN AND WICCA

Mike is a 15-year-old American teenager. Disappointed by formal, empty religious practices which did not provided him with the answers he needed, he approached the Wiccan cult by reading some books. It was the night after Halloween when he felt a strong impulse to go visit the American city called Salem. Mike said that was not the first time he had felt some kind of a "psychic impulse". He explained that his interest for Wicca and its magic is strictly related to the feeling of power and freedom it gives to him. He was fascinated by this kind of spiritual research and found that many other teenagers, both guys and girls, had also be charmed by occultism. Most of them first approached this kind of "dark" spirituality during Halloween celebrations. There is a book called "Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation", that encourages girls and young women to learn how to become "witches" and how to use their skills in magic. Courses on witchcraft are also available in colleges as well as in private associations and clubs (cirlces).

Carolyn May, who has been working in schools in projects concerning young people's disress, is now warning all parents about the dangers hidden in magic and witchcraft. She says that one can visit a bookstore anytime and can easily find books about witchcraft and manuals that explain how to perform magic.These books are also available to kids. John Gibson, a former Wiccan wizard, now converted to Catholicism, says he is ashamed of his past life dedicated to magic and heathen religious practices, but above all, he wants to warn teenagers and their families against the traps of magic, of a cult which champions individualism and submission of others. Wiccan is so individualist that most of its followes practice alone. Although Wiccan is not a form of satanism, Wicca might slowly lead its followers to a deeper involvment in black magic. Therefore, there is a risk that many teenagers who follow the Wiccan cult "meet" or are influenced by evil spirits as well. Father Desmarais, who has studied these phenomena among adolescents, try to explain parents the dangers of these kind of contact - basically the same contact one can achieve in a séance during a Halloween celebration - but parents don't take him seriously. Nonetheless, when they start to face their kids' sudden disturbed behaviour, they turn to Father Desmarais for help. The kind of magic celebrated during a (serious) Halloween celebration is defined by him as intoxicating. It poisons people's minds and ends up absorbing all their life, stealing a lot of vital energy.

As Carolyn May points out, young people are vulnerable, they are going through a very delicate period of their life, they feel weak and confused. Their faith is not strong but their need of spirituality is compulsive, and lead them to look for the spiritual elsewhere. Halloween is celebrated by the Wiccan magical cult on October 31st, with the name of Samhain. All magical festivities - as well as satanic rituals - follows the moon (full moon and new moon). Parents should be concerned about their children's search for spirituality and help them find the answers and the faith they need without letting them fall in such dangerous and evil practices. This is a difficult task for all parents, especially for those who are confused, who do not have a strong faith, who never really took their own spiritual needs seriously. Some young people involved in occultism may end up attempting suicide, or may suffer from severe form of depression. Psychological as well as religous help is highly recommended in these cases and parents should underestimate their children's discomfort.

THE WAY I SEE IT

Personally, I've never really been involved in Halloween celebrations. When I was a child in the late 80s, Halloween was not very spread in Italy and so I knew it existed only because I had heard of it or seen some American movies. Later on, Halloween became more popular in Italy as well, and I was a teenager at that time. Our main concern then was going to some parties where you could have the chance to meet people - especially boys - and have fun. My classmates and I were certainly not interested in the spiritual aspects of this celebration. To us, this was simply one more chance to enjoy our social life. I think this is true for many other people who go to Halloween parties nowadays and I really don't blame these people, as I enjoy going to parties a lot, too. I think there is nothing wrong with a Halloween party where you can have fun and stay with your friends, but I believe that yes, at other levels of awareness, Halloween might lose its aurea of fun, and become a trap for those who are more psychologically vulnerable.

REFERENCES

---

Halloween on Wikipedia (English),11 December 2006

Halloween on Wikipedia (Italian), 9 December 2006

Halloween on the Web(here you can find a lot of other links)

The Halloween's Controversy, retrieved December 16, 2006

Dispelling the Charms of Wicca, retrieved January 8, 2007