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MercTech -> RE: What has happened to horror and holloween? (10/15/2013 5:02:13 PM)
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The best explanation I ever heard for Halloween (Samhain) went back to traditions among the Gaelic tribes that rather died back and were diluted with the massacres of the Druids in Roman Britain. What I heard:
In the old druidic calendar, Samhain was the last day of the year when the veil was thinnest to the other world. The spirits of the dead that died in the year would migrate to the Summerland at that time. And, occasionally, there would be visitors from the other side.
A small gift of food would be given to any stranger that called at your door because you never knew who they were and you didn't dare offend one of the fair fold that might come visiting. Some of this is remembered in the concept of the "dumb feast" where a place would be set at dinner for beloved dead just in case they wanted to visit.
If you had to go out, masks would be worn so that tricksy spirits would not recognize you and follow you home.
The halloween of my youth was a fun crazy night that lasted from dusk until midnight. Today, it is a ho-hum trip to the mall so the kids can glean cheap candy.
I like to drag out my copy of "The Raven" on Halloween Night. A campy old Hammer Films production with Peter Lorre, Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Vampirella (before she was outed as lesbian and her career died, Elvira was not the original mistress of the dark), Tor Johnson (50s wrestler that became a weird looking thug in many movies) and to top it off a 19 year old and badly acting Jack Nicholson.
Anyway, I'm hoping this job is done and I can be home for Samhain.
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