Halloween
The pumpkins, the scarecrows
and the goblins are out on the yards in our neighborhood. Time to get a
big sack of candies or two for the little trick-or-treaters knocking on
your doors when the sun goes down on October 30. Contrary to what you might
imagine, Halloween is not concocted by the candy industry. They took advantage
of it and promoted the candy giving part for sure. Halloween goes way back,
observed in different cultures: as Eve of the Feast of All Saints by Catholics,
as Samhein (end of summer) and New Year's Eve long ago by Celtics.
The Celtics believed
that on Samhein, the other world became visible to mere mortals and that
sacrifices were needed to appease gods who might play tricks on humans.
The souls of the dead were said to be visiting their previous homes on
this day, too. Thus Halloween acquired its dark and fearsome overtone and
hence the dress-up as witches, fairies and demons and parading through
the neighborhood of homes came about. The Irish immigrants into this country
were said to have influenced on the trick-or-treat part of the tradition.
They were known to have played pranks on people on Halloween in the late
19th century.
The exact date of the
Halloween, though now fixed on Oct 30, could have happened earlier in October
or later in late November in ancient cultures when the lunar calendars
were used. It is also said to be the beginning of winter in some other
cultures, which brings about winter more than a month earlier than the
current onset of winter on the Winter Solstice (Dec 21 mostly).
The Seventh
Full Moon of the Lunar Year
Chinese has a festival
for ghosts, too. It falls on the fifteenth day of the seventh month in
the lunar calendar. Actually the whole month of the seventh month in the
lunar calendar is dedicated as the ghost month. It is said that the underworld
opens its gate on the first day of that month and closes on the last day
of that month. In the meantime, dwellings of the underworld are free to
roam our world. It is believed that in this month, major accidents that
cause many lives are more likely to happen due to the doings of the underworld
beings.
On the day of full
moon of the seventh month, every household prepares a feast and offer a
prayer for the ghosts roaming among us for fear that those loved ones that
passed on before us would starve when they pay us a visit and also to appeal
to malevolent ghosts with the intention to harm to bypass this household.
The custom is very much influenced by the Taoist practice to pay respect
to our ancestors on this day.
The underworld part
is probably influenced by several sources: First, some Taoists as well
as Buddhists believe in the purgatory underworld as a means of punishment
for our sins in this lifetime, thus we fear the underworld. Secondly, the
belief of reincarnation in Buddhism is that our current lifetime is an
opportunity for redemption into a higher life form in our next life, thus
we pray for and feed the lost souls from the underworld. Thirdly,
the folklore of a monk who searched the underworld for his mother and practiced
good deeds to redeem his mother from the underworld. It is said that
the monk in the story gained access to the underworld in the seventh lunar
month, thus the belief in the opening and closing of the underworld in
the seventh lunar month as well as the practices of the prayer and the
feast came about.
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