halloween already
I was given two tasks tonight: to give an introduction as to the origins of Halloween and the practices that came out of this event, and to explain its meaning in our seminary formation. The first is easy, the other is quite impossible. Nevertheless we will try.
And so the first task. What is Halloween and where did it come from?
Halloween is an October 31 event. It is the night before what was formerly called All Hallows Day. All hallows day is actually a two day affair with the celebration of All Saints Day in November 1 and All Souls Day in November 2. But both were then considered All Hallows Day. Hallow is an old English word which means to make holy as we say in the Our Father – “hallowed be thy name”. Hallow is similar in meaning to saints. Saints are people who were made holy, people who are holy – hallow. Halloween comes from this word. In fact it is an Irish word hallow e’en translated literally in modern English as Hallow eve which means the night before All Hallows Day. So there you are Halloween.
So what about the souls, and ghosts and goblins and pranksters on this day, the eve of all hallows day or Halloween?
All hallows Day is Celtic in origin. The Celts are the people who populated Ireland, Scotland and the Welsh even before the Roman times. October 31 until November 2 is the Celtic Festival called Samhain (sow-en). It is their own New Year. It is described as “the turning of the year when the veil between the worlds was at its thinnest and the dead communicates with the living.” The dead interact again with the living. During this day the barrier which separates the natural from the supernatural is removed temporarily and the divine men and the dead move freely among men and interfere in their affairs. It is not as you imagine, not like the movies the day of zombies nor the night of the living dead. But yes they cause trouble, what with fairies, elves, goblins and spirits all moving around playing tricks on men. That’s the origin of playing pranks and tricks on people during this day and then blame them on elves and fairies, ghosts and mga kalag. This is the trick part of the trick or treat game played during this eve.
This time of Samhain (sow-en) is also the end of summer and therefore a time for preparing for winter. Animals in the herds which are weak and old and could not survive the cold of winter were slaughtered and their meat preserved for the long winter months. Samhain (sow-en) is also the close of the harvest and therefore a time to celebrate the fruits of ones labor in the fields. In the Celtic world this is also the time when the poor are dressed like spirits, wearing masks and all they could think of as somewhat scary, and ask for food knocking at every house. It’s a harvest celebration, a kind of thanksgiving for the harvest. That is why in my time baye-baye which is made from ground pinipig, which is pounded rice from crops recently harvested, is one of the delicacies prepared for this occasion. We also have muasi, suman, ibos, inday-inday, palutaw, linugaw, puto, bingka, suman latik, sundol, butong-butong – all by-products of rice and coconut just harvested from the fields. We didn’t have spaghetti during those days. Even now I still find that food so cheap naman during kalag-kalag or Halloween, for I grew up knowing and loving it as a time when sweet rice cakes are eaten fresh and hot, lots of rice cakes, rice cakes to our hearts content.
The catholic church during the time of the Celts was then a loving and an understanding church, far far from the image which some priests nowadays want to portray her as the eternal killjoy. And so, understanding as she was back then, the church on seeing all these practices, instead of suppressing them as something pagan, did what they also did with Christmas and Valentines Day and the other pagan festivals of ancient times. The church Christianized them, she Christianized this pagan festival of the Celts and celebrated All Hallow’s Day, the day of all the saints, and added to it the Day of praying for all the Dead. So there you go, the American trick or treat or the Filipino pangalag-kalag, the day of ghosts, fairies and elves; the day of tricks and pranks and practical jokes, the day of eating newly harvested products of the land – all brought about by a pagan practice which was Christianized.
Now for the hard part: What is the connection between Bagat 2004 and our formation. What is the significance of Bagat 2004 with our formation? Well I don’t know how it is connected. Man finds it always pleasurable to experience fear, to feel afraid for example in listening to a ghost story. But the same man finds it repugnant to experience fear in meeting the ghost himself. Am I correct? Or should I say is Aristotle correct? Because this is not my observation but by the erstwhile philosopher. How is Bagat 2004 significant for us all. 2 points probably.
First, Halloween tells us something about our world. It tells us that there is a world beyond what our eyes can see. We call this the invisible world. It tells us too that there is a knowledge beyond what our mind can know. We call this the mysterious world. It tells us that there is a limit to science, there is a limit to physics, there is a limit to reason. We leave room for mysticism, a world where mystics may hold that the answers to the worlds problems may have to do with acknowledging that we don’t have all the answers. Bagat 2004 as the culmination of our 1st semester humbles us all. There is a limit to our control, there is a limit to our desire to know and a limit to our act of knowing, there is a limit to our investigating, there is limit to our psychology, there is a limit to our pretense that we could provide for all the solutions. In the end we have to acknowledge that we could not know and understand everything that happens in our life and in the life of the children we form. In the end after a days work we have to stop looking and instead behold them with an eye of a mystic and once in a while say to yourself, “what the hell” and jump with them in the swimming pool at punta villa, play with them and enjoy yourself to the full.
Second, Halloween tells us something about God. Fr. Ralph may have struck you and given you the impression that his wisdom is quite earthy if not altogether earthly. Something perhaps which he has acquired due to his line of work as a giver and provider of our daily bread. But last night I was permitted a glimpse of a spiritual insight in an advice which only a spiritual master can see and offer. I was asking him in a tone of exasperation and deep frustration ‘why is it nga ang gina-ale-ale naton nga papari-on nagagwa?” And behold wisdom himself replied, “ginapkita lang na guro sa aton nga ang Dios gid man ang nagapapari sa ila kag indi kita.” It is God, it is the Lord! God is beyond us – as high as the heavens are above the earth so high are my ways above your ways. He is power beyond any other power. He is in control.
In the eight years that I have been here every year is a unique year – unique talents, unique joys, unique problems, unique defeats, unique victories. In all these I have grown to love this community with all its genius and stupidity, with its treasure and flaws, with its brilliance and shadows. We are afraid, we hesitate at times but we continue to walk straight ahead for God is with us and this is his work not ours.
And so the first task. What is Halloween and where did it come from?
Halloween is an October 31 event. It is the night before what was formerly called All Hallows Day. All hallows day is actually a two day affair with the celebration of All Saints Day in November 1 and All Souls Day in November 2. But both were then considered All Hallows Day. Hallow is an old English word which means to make holy as we say in the Our Father – “hallowed be thy name”. Hallow is similar in meaning to saints. Saints are people who were made holy, people who are holy – hallow. Halloween comes from this word. In fact it is an Irish word hallow e’en translated literally in modern English as Hallow eve which means the night before All Hallows Day. So there you are Halloween.
So what about the souls, and ghosts and goblins and pranksters on this day, the eve of all hallows day or Halloween?
All hallows Day is Celtic in origin. The Celts are the people who populated Ireland, Scotland and the Welsh even before the Roman times. October 31 until November 2 is the Celtic Festival called Samhain (sow-en). It is their own New Year. It is described as “the turning of the year when the veil between the worlds was at its thinnest and the dead communicates with the living.” The dead interact again with the living. During this day the barrier which separates the natural from the supernatural is removed temporarily and the divine men and the dead move freely among men and interfere in their affairs. It is not as you imagine, not like the movies the day of zombies nor the night of the living dead. But yes they cause trouble, what with fairies, elves, goblins and spirits all moving around playing tricks on men. That’s the origin of playing pranks and tricks on people during this day and then blame them on elves and fairies, ghosts and mga kalag. This is the trick part of the trick or treat game played during this eve.
This time of Samhain (sow-en) is also the end of summer and therefore a time for preparing for winter. Animals in the herds which are weak and old and could not survive the cold of winter were slaughtered and their meat preserved for the long winter months. Samhain (sow-en) is also the close of the harvest and therefore a time to celebrate the fruits of ones labor in the fields. In the Celtic world this is also the time when the poor are dressed like spirits, wearing masks and all they could think of as somewhat scary, and ask for food knocking at every house. It’s a harvest celebration, a kind of thanksgiving for the harvest. That is why in my time baye-baye which is made from ground pinipig, which is pounded rice from crops recently harvested, is one of the delicacies prepared for this occasion. We also have muasi, suman, ibos, inday-inday, palutaw, linugaw, puto, bingka, suman latik, sundol, butong-butong – all by-products of rice and coconut just harvested from the fields. We didn’t have spaghetti during those days. Even now I still find that food so cheap naman during kalag-kalag or Halloween, for I grew up knowing and loving it as a time when sweet rice cakes are eaten fresh and hot, lots of rice cakes, rice cakes to our hearts content.
The catholic church during the time of the Celts was then a loving and an understanding church, far far from the image which some priests nowadays want to portray her as the eternal killjoy. And so, understanding as she was back then, the church on seeing all these practices, instead of suppressing them as something pagan, did what they also did with Christmas and Valentines Day and the other pagan festivals of ancient times. The church Christianized them, she Christianized this pagan festival of the Celts and celebrated All Hallow’s Day, the day of all the saints, and added to it the Day of praying for all the Dead. So there you go, the American trick or treat or the Filipino pangalag-kalag, the day of ghosts, fairies and elves; the day of tricks and pranks and practical jokes, the day of eating newly harvested products of the land – all brought about by a pagan practice which was Christianized.
Now for the hard part: What is the connection between Bagat 2004 and our formation. What is the significance of Bagat 2004 with our formation? Well I don’t know how it is connected. Man finds it always pleasurable to experience fear, to feel afraid for example in listening to a ghost story. But the same man finds it repugnant to experience fear in meeting the ghost himself. Am I correct? Or should I say is Aristotle correct? Because this is not my observation but by the erstwhile philosopher. How is Bagat 2004 significant for us all. 2 points probably.
First, Halloween tells us something about our world. It tells us that there is a world beyond what our eyes can see. We call this the invisible world. It tells us too that there is a knowledge beyond what our mind can know. We call this the mysterious world. It tells us that there is a limit to science, there is a limit to physics, there is a limit to reason. We leave room for mysticism, a world where mystics may hold that the answers to the worlds problems may have to do with acknowledging that we don’t have all the answers. Bagat 2004 as the culmination of our 1st semester humbles us all. There is a limit to our control, there is a limit to our desire to know and a limit to our act of knowing, there is a limit to our investigating, there is limit to our psychology, there is a limit to our pretense that we could provide for all the solutions. In the end we have to acknowledge that we could not know and understand everything that happens in our life and in the life of the children we form. In the end after a days work we have to stop looking and instead behold them with an eye of a mystic and once in a while say to yourself, “what the hell” and jump with them in the swimming pool at punta villa, play with them and enjoy yourself to the full.
Second, Halloween tells us something about God. Fr. Ralph may have struck you and given you the impression that his wisdom is quite earthy if not altogether earthly. Something perhaps which he has acquired due to his line of work as a giver and provider of our daily bread. But last night I was permitted a glimpse of a spiritual insight in an advice which only a spiritual master can see and offer. I was asking him in a tone of exasperation and deep frustration ‘why is it nga ang gina-ale-ale naton nga papari-on nagagwa?” And behold wisdom himself replied, “ginapkita lang na guro sa aton nga ang Dios gid man ang nagapapari sa ila kag indi kita.” It is God, it is the Lord! God is beyond us – as high as the heavens are above the earth so high are my ways above your ways. He is power beyond any other power. He is in control.
In the eight years that I have been here every year is a unique year – unique talents, unique joys, unique problems, unique defeats, unique victories. In all these I have grown to love this community with all its genius and stupidity, with its treasure and flaws, with its brilliance and shadows. We are afraid, we hesitate at times but we continue to walk straight ahead for God is with us and this is his work not ours.
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