HALLOWEEN AND ITS ORIGIN

For the past two days in Asian countries, focusing on the Philippines where I am residing, I found it very difficult and stressful to move into the cities where I’m called upon for one service or the other. People, both private vehicle owners and daily commuter have been choked by heavy traffic jam. Because of the rush for those traveling to their various provinces, so many slept overnight in different bus terminals. It is often declared public holiday but people prefer not to rest and take the heat off sun and cold of rain to travel. So many celebrations in different bars, and horror houses. Only in Manila North Cemetery recorded a number of 50,000 people. Offices are been decorated with scores and skeletons. Now my questions remain, why Halloween, how come about it, is there deviations from the main reason of this celebration or festival?

Halloween and its origin:

Halloween or Hallowe'en (a contraction of Hallows' Even or Hallows' Evening), also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve, is a celebration observed in several countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It begins the three-day observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed

It is widely believed that many Halloween traditions originated from ancient Celtic harvest festivals, particularly the Gaelic festival Samhain; that such festivals may have had pagan roots; and that Samhain itself was Christianized as Halloween by the early Church. Some believe, however, that Halloween began solely as a Christian holiday, separate from ancient festivals like Samhain

Aim for Halloween:

Simply, Halloween is aimed to be a festival through which the dead (faithful departed) are commemorated and remembered. It is celebrated the same date the church mapped out as all souls and all saints day, which means, both the triumphant and suffering are remembered on this day. It is aimed at praying and visiting the cemetery and prays at the grave of loved one(s) for their continuous soul repose; that is why on this days there are huge crowd in the entire cemetery especially in the Asian countries.

Deviations:

Costumes /Horrors: the average American will spend $185.50 on Halloween this year. That figure includes $76.05 for candy, $66.78 for costumes, and $42.67 for decorations. Now, I realize that $186 and change is quite a bit less than the $76,000 — or even $33,000 — spent on the average wedding. But at least the latter pays for what is ideally a once-in-a-lifetime event. Halloween, on the other hand, keeps repeating itself. Every. Stinking. Year. All over in the social media you see horrors and scary images. All are made and decorated with expensive costume. People pay some amount only to get a pass into those horror rooms. The question remains: are we celebrating the happiness of our relatives in heaven or hell? Because those in heaven cannot have a scary face because they are enjoying everlasting joy. On the other hand, those that are yet to go to heaven (if there is anything like that) will not be happy because if truly their faces are horror and scary, we are using it as a karicacho, exposing there plights to the entire world. These Halloween costumes are so scary, some people, not only children have faced different physical and spiritual ailment just for a sudden sight on a horrible costume. Some hit their head on a door frame or wall, some collided heads with each other causing broken heads. So many children got terrified and mistakenly fall from the stairs and balconies. Some are convulsed. Some had very terrible nightmares, while some are presently experiencing all kinds of spiritual attacks just for attending a Halloween parade and all of its kind. 

Opportunity for the Witches:

I posted on my Facebook page ‘thank you lord for the gift of life. And may the soul of the faithful departed rest in peace by God’s grace. It’s Halloween!” and someone commented, “Halloween is different from all souls or all saints. It’s witches celebration”. If you think deeply about this reply, you will see something that relates to his reason for saying that. For me, God did not at all deprived power from the devil and for we human, every terrible horrible thing is use to represent devil’s images and agents. It is a big opportunity for the witches and wizard to take patterns and styles for the reigned costumes. Some of those wearing those masks and costumes transforms for their real person into their spiritual attire in order to operate. No Halloween costume or statue depict sometime alive or something pleasant.  They only take significance in horrors and dead human and animal’s skull which are decorations for different evil shrine and covens.

Road closure and restictions:

On Wednesday, October 31st the following roads will be closed in the city of Greenville, S.C (Fox Carolina) --  :

The northbound lane of Main Street, from McBee Avenue to Washington Street, will be closed from 3:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. 

The southbound lane of Falls Street, from East Broad Street to East Camperdown Way, will be closed from 4 a.m. to Noon.

West Earle Street, from Rutherford to Robinson will be closed 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Hunley lane will be closed from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Afton Avenure will be closed from 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

On Saturday, November third, the following streets will be closed for Run4Life: Cleveland Street, from Swamp Rabbit Trail to Boxwood Lane from 8:30 to 9:30.

From 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. the following with be closed: Boxwood Lane, Woodland Way, Lakehurst Street, Southland Avenue. Also on Saturday, Main Street from O'Neal to Augusta will be closed from 4:30 to 10 p.m. for Greenville Open Studios. 

Greenlink will also experience deviations due to road closures. They will be unable to service the following route bus stops from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m:

River Street & Falls Park Drive - routes 2, 4, and 6,

River Street & Rhett - route 6,

Rhett Street & N Markley Street - routes 2, 4, and 6. 

Additionally, the Heart of Main trolley will be unable to service the following stops from 4:30-11 p.m: Field Street, S Markley & Main Street, Field Street Condominiums, S Main and Wardlaw Street, 700 Block of S Main Street. 

Social dilemmas: 

According to Forbes, Halloween is a particularly deadly night due to the high number of drunk driver on the roads and increase in trick-or theaters out during the evening hours, according to the national highway traffic safety administration. In 2011, 38 percent of fatalities on Halloween night nationwide occurred in a crash involving a driver or a motorcyclist with blood alcohol content at or above the lega limit of .8, and 11 % of those fatalities involved a pedestrian. Apart from being drunk and driving, there are other social dilemmas like killing, robbery, kidnapping, high rate of prostitution in other to raise money for Halloween celebration.

My Stand:

Since Halloween is aimed at commemoration of the departed souls, we should see it as one. It should be more of sober reflection of our lives and meditation on the situations of those that have gone before us. Halloween should be more of a time of helping the poor and visiting the sick especially those that are at verge of death. Horrible and horrific costume to be on a watch to avoid negative effects after.