Been where? ... Done What?

I was where? on December 23, 2008

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Up until about 15 years ago (give or take) Halloween was one night of the year.

Yes, as kids we looked forward to it for forever; forever being the 4 weeks from October 1st to October 30th. After all once we went back to school all we had to do besides homework, our chores and playing safely outside was waiting for the next day for celebrating. And Halloween was The Next Day for Celebrating.

We waited and planned for Halloween the entire month, but we didn’t think about what we were going to be for Halloween until about October 27th and then we would proudly tell our mother what we wanted to be – usually a super hero or a cowboy or a ballerina or a pirate. And our mother would say something like “that’s nice” or “good for you” and come October 31st she would take the most worn out pillow cases, cut 2 holes in each and we would be ghosts. We were not of the Unlimited Funds Generation.

We didn’t decorate our house, no one did. You didn’t have to. Everyone knew it was Halloween. After all it’s not like Easter where it changes every year. If it’s October 31st, it’s Halloween. Archaic Halloween decorations (the ones around when I was young) were just this: you turn your porch light on. Universal Symbol of the willingness to give away candies to all the snot nose little rug rats in the neighbourhood. And you instinctively knew that you had to avoid any house that didn’t have the porch light on. And of course Mr. Pickles house – who wasn’t about to give you a treat – he just left his porch light on to double dare you to ring his bell – no one did – well, no one except the new kid in the neighbourhood that is, the one who was dared. The one we double dared!

Today Halloween Decorating is as big as Christmas Decorating; maybe even bigger, but, I don’t have the heart to actually Google that fact for sure. Halloween decorating also lasts about as long as Christmas decorating which is another statistic that makes me crazy. But that’s for another day!

Halloween; I was told from Sister Gabrielle; is a quick way of saying All Hallows Eve because October 31st comes before November 1st, which is All Saints Day. All Saints Day was the day to celebrate any saint that wasn’t popular enough to have his/her own day in the Church calendar of events and celebrations.

The facts that I heard from the Absolutely Reliable School of Recess was that because All Saints Day was so sacred to the church the evil witches and goblins would make trouble the night before – just to annoy God and the good. So, Halloween is slightly connected to religion. But, just slightly.

I guess I’m afraid that it will become a religion; a certified full fledge let’s get out there but don’t forget to send in your donations first religion. I’m more afraid that people will like it better than the standard religions. After all you don’t have to be good all year. Even more so you are actually allowed to be bad; at least for one night. You can trick or treat someone as you choose, you can eat all the candy you can grab, you can knock on strangers doors and expect to get something good, something you might not have earned, and you can celebrate the dark side without actually going over to it.

My point: I am not so much afraid of the month long Halloween celebrations or even of Halloween becoming the new religion, I am more bothered by the feeling that ‘the powers that be’ (no, not God) ‘the powers that be’ are the ones that make commercials and want us to buy and want us to buy more and want us to buy more often and want us to buy more than we can afford; all in the guise of celebrating the season! What season? They say it will keep the economy a thriving and the jobs a flowing. It won’t work. It just makes us poor, albeit in a very spooky looking house, but still poor!

Be afraid. Be Very afraid!

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Just so you know, I babbled sometime in October of 2011