2008 Woodie Awards
Halloween is re-directed from original roots
Benjamin Billman
Issue date: 11/1/07 Section: Intermission
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Yesterday was Halloween.
Halloween in today's age is a mass merging of different cultures coming together and mixing with each other and making something most people can be happy with.
Of course, this is true for really every other holiday, be it religious or otherwise.
Halloween has one facet to it which really doesn't follow this pattern. That is the Hispanic celebration of Dia de Los Muertos. Essentially, the only thing that has corrupted this ancient Aztec festival has been the date it is now celebrated on. Other than that, it remains an authentic holiday.
The Christian beliefs of Halloween are rapidly being lost to the commercialization of the holiday. It's more important now to find a good costume and collect candy (and get drunk) than to remember those who have died in the past and celebrate their lives, but not for Dia de lost Muertos.
The celebration, which lasts until Nov. 2 honoring different groups of deceased persons each day, is a celebration of the dead. It is a day for them to escape from the spiritual world and share a feast with their living descendants.
This is not a scary time for those who celebrate, it is a time to set up a picnic in the graveyard, have processionals to honor those who have gone before and, as several students on our campus have done, set up altars in memory of the dead.
The Atwood Little Theatre has a small collection of altars, complete with the sugar skulls, pictures of the dead and candles, many with the image of the Lady of Guadalupe on them. Granted, this is an American co-option of a Mexican holiday, so the shrines are to people like Tupac, Bob Marley and others, but the meaning is there.
So as you return from the parties after Halloween and prepare for the month before Thanksgiving and the next break, consider stopping by the altars in Atwood and maybe even make one yourself.
It doesn't have to be anything special, several pictures and a candle really cover it, maybe a piece of chocolate so the person you are honoring can draw some spiritual refreshment from it, but think about it.
At the very least you will have done something to put your own personal demons to rest. At most, you will have pleased the spirits that return to this world, which may sound a bit kooky, but you never know.
Halloween in today's age is a mass merging of different cultures coming together and mixing with each other and making something most people can be happy with.
Of course, this is true for really every other holiday, be it religious or otherwise.
Halloween has one facet to it which really doesn't follow this pattern. That is the Hispanic celebration of Dia de Los Muertos. Essentially, the only thing that has corrupted this ancient Aztec festival has been the date it is now celebrated on. Other than that, it remains an authentic holiday.
The Christian beliefs of Halloween are rapidly being lost to the commercialization of the holiday. It's more important now to find a good costume and collect candy (and get drunk) than to remember those who have died in the past and celebrate their lives, but not for Dia de lost Muertos.
The celebration, which lasts until Nov. 2 honoring different groups of deceased persons each day, is a celebration of the dead. It is a day for them to escape from the spiritual world and share a feast with their living descendants.
This is not a scary time for those who celebrate, it is a time to set up a picnic in the graveyard, have processionals to honor those who have gone before and, as several students on our campus have done, set up altars in memory of the dead.
The Atwood Little Theatre has a small collection of altars, complete with the sugar skulls, pictures of the dead and candles, many with the image of the Lady of Guadalupe on them. Granted, this is an American co-option of a Mexican holiday, so the shrines are to people like Tupac, Bob Marley and others, but the meaning is there.
So as you return from the parties after Halloween and prepare for the month before Thanksgiving and the next break, consider stopping by the altars in Atwood and maybe even make one yourself.
It doesn't have to be anything special, several pictures and a candle really cover it, maybe a piece of chocolate so the person you are honoring can draw some spiritual refreshment from it, but think about it.
At the very least you will have done something to put your own personal demons to rest. At most, you will have pleased the spirits that return to this world, which may sound a bit kooky, but you never know.