corpse bride
Hallowe'en is not a holiday per se. The holiday is the day next, in the western church, All Saints. For our lifetimes it has been a child's day of celebration. The party tradition is somehow related to ancient, pagan Ireland. It is an opportunity. New post-christian America has invented a celtic backstory. Before that, kids had hobo and witch's costumes and collected candy, apples, and change from neighbors' porches. It was also an opportunity for mischief. 'Tricks or treats' gave one a choice: tribute candy, or a knocked over outhouse. Petty childish shakedown became a cherished kiddie tradition, two hours, with a pillow case, in search of various forms of sugar. O, if you are a geezer don't yell at children to get off your lawn the last days of October.
headless horseman
Somewhere, sometime, this became tamed. The set upon host, became a welcoming host. They began to set a light welcoming the beggars. They began to decorate, first with a candle inside a carved squash. A smiling pumpkin became a jack o'lantern. Some went beyond that, and made life size scary decorations, often borrowed from folklore, and recent stories.
spiders
People are scared of death. So graveyard decorations, and other sorts of fearful things and creatures set a mood. Skeletons and skulls are scary to some, while spiders and snakes are scary to some.
sick pumpkin
People are free to practise their imagination. Hallowe'en has largely not been disneyfied in neighborhoods. Some people deploy humour.
And you can also bring out a phonograph and play 'Monster Mash', or the Anne Boleyn song.
In the Tower of London, large as life,
The ghost of Anne Boleyn walks, they declare.
Oh, Anne Boleyn was once King 'enry's wife,
Until 'e 'ad the 'eadsman bob 'er 'air.
Oh, yes, he done her wrong long years ago,
And she comes back at night to tell him so. ...
No comments:
Post a Comment