Halloween. Subract Horror. Add Whore-er. Repeat.
Why do we dress up on Halloween? I know why I dress up. Because it's cool to hide yourself and be someone else for a period of time. The more covered up my face is the better. But, seriously, why this tradition?
A quick google search gave me this result on the origin of Halloween:
(http://media.www.washburnreview.org/media/storage/paper1140/news/2009/10/28/Ae/Halloween.Origins.Steeped.In.Celtic.Traditions-3815977.shtml)
It doesn't say anything about dressing up and begging your neighbors for candy. Nor does it say anything about two dollar bud-lights or cover bands. It does, however, mention spirits, demons, and fairies -- among other things.
So why do we dress up?
History.com has this to say:
Again, it talks about ghosts and spirits. Which is what I thought when I was invited to dress up as a cowboy for Halloween... A dead cowboy? Nope. Just a cowboy. I was also invited to a lumberjack theme Halloween party... ghosts of lumberjacks? No. Living lumberjacks.
Is anyone else confused?
Halloween has come so far from what it's meant to be that people just don't get why they are dressing up. Most of the costumes that you see at any given Halloween gathering have nothing to do with ghosts, demons, spirits, fairies, etc. The sublime purpose of the holiday is completely lost. The fright is gone and is replaced with silly. And the horror is replaced with whore-er.
On Friday, I dressed up as Eric Draven (Gothic hero of The Crow). I was dead as I wandered through waves of people at the party I attended. I went with three very much alive cowboys, a vibrantly living football referee, a football player with a pulse, a sexy gypsy, and a sexy cop. I wondered if we were trying to celebrate a holiday or show off our legs (all of which were perfect, I must add).
There were plenty of superheroes at the party. They were living. And very many living whores. (I should add that the whores I am referencing are most certainly just regular every day women dressing up as whores for the party and are not whores all the time -- or so I assume. I didn't take a poll). There were sexy cops. Sexy cab drivers. Sexy nurses. Sexy dancers. Sexy this. And Sexy that. And whatnot. There was the occasional sexy witch and various sexy princesses, which I am going to arbitrarily allow into the spirit, ghost, demon, fairy, genre due to the nature in which most princesses exist: fairy tales where magic co-exists with (most often) demons, ghosts, spirits, fairies, and such like. You typically don't' find whores in fairy tales, however.
Anyways, there is nothing overly scary about a scantily clad woman... wait. I changed my mind.
That night, as I wandered through the crowd, dressed in black and face painted black and white like some freakish circus clown or creepy mime, I occasionally found myself among a sexy cop or a sexy princess. I was hand-cuffed at one point. And it illicited a strange reaction. My heart began to beat faster. My eyes became worried. Fear crept in to me. What was she going to do next? What am I supposed to do next? Anything can happen and the uncertainty is scary. The uncertainty was certainly sublime.
I dressed up as a dead thing to celebrate Halloween with all matter of whores and such. And even though most of the costumes didn't fit appropriately with the purpose of the holiday, some contributed to the sensation that Halloween is meant to illicit. Sublime.
And as a cover band played "Santeria" and the misguided whore-ish looking girls sang along loudly with their tight skirts, lacy stockings, and leather boots, I truly felt the spirit of Halloween pulse through my veins. Anything can happen. It was a sublime evening after all.
A quick google search gave me this result on the origin of Halloween:
This Halloween (or All Hallows' Eve, in its proper name) the streets will fill with children looking for sugar highs, parents dreading dentist bills, teens looking for mischief and the party crowd celebrating at any excuse.
But that's not how it started.
Halloween is the modern incarnation of the Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced Sah-ween, because Celtic spellings and pronunciations are worlds apart), which was first celebrated about 1000 B.C. Most Celtic European cultures had some sort of commemoration of Samhain on Nov. 1, the Celtic new year. Activities began on Oct. 31, the last day of the old year, the day of the last harvests before frost set in. It was the day that farmers would decide which of their livestock to slaughter in order to survive the winter. It was also the day that the line between the living and dead blurred.
The eve of Samhain was one filled with merriment and games, but also superstition and danger. The Celts believed that dead spirits as well as demons, fairies and other haunts freely intermingled with the living people. That was a happy thought in that ones beloved relatives were able to dance and sing right alongside their descendants, but it was also a very dangerous predicament in regard to the not-so-beloved deceased. The night of Samhain eve, the people would make sacrifices to keep themselves and their children safe from the darker spirits.
Most Celtic cultures of Europe had a celebration of Samhain similar to this, but, in America, our true Halloween heritage comes from the celebrations of a particular Celtic country: Ireland.
Irish lore dictated that on the eve of Samhain, the Morrighan, Celtic goddess of death, sex and rebirth (to name a few) would meet up with her love, the Daghda, who was the Irish god of light and life. They would procreate while straddling the river Unius, symbolically joining the lands of death and life for the year to come. The child that they created on the eve of Samhain would become the new year, and would relinquish its hold to the next child they created in that manner.
This bizarre union was necessary in the Irish-Celtic culture, in that it preserved the balance of life and death, light and dark. If one were to overpower the other, then the chaos of Samhain's eve would last for a year.
Now, fast-forward to about 600 A.D. The Romans and, in turn, Christians took over the previously Celtic-pagan countries. They realized that to try to stop such strong festivals as Samhain would be futile, so instead, Pope Boniface IV declared November 1 "All Saints' Day," or alternately, "All Hallows' Day." In this way, the Church allowed festivities celebrating life on that day, and allowed the darker activities concerning the dead on the night before, All Hallows' Evening, or Halloween.
(http://media.www.washburnreview.org/media/storage/paper1140/news/2009/10/28/Ae/Halloween.Origins.Steeped.In.Celtic.Traditions-3815977.shtml)
It doesn't say anything about dressing up and begging your neighbors for candy. Nor does it say anything about two dollar bud-lights or cover bands. It does, however, mention spirits, demons, and fairies -- among other things.
So why do we dress up?
History.com has this to say:
The American tradition of "trick-or-treating" probably dates back to the early All Souls' Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called "soul cakes" in return for their promise to pray for the family's dead relatives.(http://www.history.com/content/halloween/real-story-of-halloween/today-s-traditions)
The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as "going a-souling" was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.
The tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.
Again, it talks about ghosts and spirits. Which is what I thought when I was invited to dress up as a cowboy for Halloween... A dead cowboy? Nope. Just a cowboy. I was also invited to a lumberjack theme Halloween party... ghosts of lumberjacks? No. Living lumberjacks.
Is anyone else confused?
Halloween has come so far from what it's meant to be that people just don't get why they are dressing up. Most of the costumes that you see at any given Halloween gathering have nothing to do with ghosts, demons, spirits, fairies, etc. The sublime purpose of the holiday is completely lost. The fright is gone and is replaced with silly. And the horror is replaced with whore-er.
On Friday, I dressed up as Eric Draven (Gothic hero of The Crow). I was dead as I wandered through waves of people at the party I attended. I went with three very much alive cowboys, a vibrantly living football referee, a football player with a pulse, a sexy gypsy, and a sexy cop. I wondered if we were trying to celebrate a holiday or show off our legs (all of which were perfect, I must add).
There were plenty of superheroes at the party. They were living. And very many living whores. (I should add that the whores I am referencing are most certainly just regular every day women dressing up as whores for the party and are not whores all the time -- or so I assume. I didn't take a poll). There were sexy cops. Sexy cab drivers. Sexy nurses. Sexy dancers. Sexy this. And Sexy that. And whatnot. There was the occasional sexy witch and various sexy princesses, which I am going to arbitrarily allow into the spirit, ghost, demon, fairy, genre due to the nature in which most princesses exist: fairy tales where magic co-exists with (most often) demons, ghosts, spirits, fairies, and such like. You typically don't' find whores in fairy tales, however.
Anyways, there is nothing overly scary about a scantily clad woman... wait. I changed my mind.
That night, as I wandered through the crowd, dressed in black and face painted black and white like some freakish circus clown or creepy mime, I occasionally found myself among a sexy cop or a sexy princess. I was hand-cuffed at one point. And it illicited a strange reaction. My heart began to beat faster. My eyes became worried. Fear crept in to me. What was she going to do next? What am I supposed to do next? Anything can happen and the uncertainty is scary. The uncertainty was certainly sublime.
I dressed up as a dead thing to celebrate Halloween with all matter of whores and such. And even though most of the costumes didn't fit appropriately with the purpose of the holiday, some contributed to the sensation that Halloween is meant to illicit. Sublime.
And as a cover band played "Santeria" and the misguided whore-ish looking girls sang along loudly with their tight skirts, lacy stockings, and leather boots, I truly felt the spirit of Halloween pulse through my veins. Anything can happen. It was a sublime evening after all.