All Hallows Eve
...or holy Hallowe'en.
I promise that this isn’t going to be one of those curmudgeonly ‘back in the day’ posts - it’s just a string of seasonal observations - but when I was a kid, Hallowe’en meant being scared, and I mean really scared. Bobbing for apples, it wasn’t. I was raised Catholic and so Hallowe’en was really All Hallows Eve;
“All Hallows Eve is the Vigil of All Saints’ Day, when Catholics remember those who have gone before us to enter our heavenly home. On November 2, the Church commemorates all the faithful departed still detained in Purgatory, and prays in suffrage for them.” Vatican News1
A Catholic childhood could be petrifying at times, as a belief in souls, spirits, and indeed the devil himself, was ingrained. It concerned me that at this time of the year, with the thinner veil and all, the devil might find it easier to possess souls, and for some reason I felt he might like to grab mine. So far so good, as I still feel firmly attached to my soul and intend to hang onto it, in perpetuity.
When The Exorcist film was released, there was much interest in the book upon which it was based. The family who lived next-door to us at the time, well, one of the lads living there had managed to sneak a copy of it into their house. His mother took it into their garden and burned it.
There were tales of cinema goers fainting in their seats, stories of dreadful things occurring during the making of the film that led to may believing that the film was cursed. There was a fire that destroyed a major set, and there were several deaths of cast and crew, alongside severe injuries to a number of actors, including Linda Blair.
So while some kids were trick or treating for a Curly Wurly or two2, dressed in bin liners, smears and trickles of red food colouring or joke shop fake blood at the edge of their mouths, some of us were pondering the thinning of the veil between worlds.
But now - and I suppose there’s nothing much wrong with this unless in the context of ecocide - supermarkets are packed with plastic tat. It’s a challenge to discuss this without sounding crotchety, because really, the amount of plastic is worrying. For 21st century kids, a bin liner and fake blood will cut little mustard.
They don’t want to bob for apples; they want to shove fang-shaped oesophagus scorchers made from gelatine, through the mouth-holes of their skeleton masks.
If you really want to scare them, remind them that gelatine is made from animal by-products from the meat industry, and sometimes from - wait for it - animal carcasses removed and cleared by knackers3, including skin, bones, and connective tissue.
So Hallowe’en can be holy, it can be plastic, it can be daft and it can be deep. It can also be an opportunity to release new music, which I have just done.
For those of you drawn to a kind of jazzy macabre, you may enjoy what I’ve done with The Dadaists, and that can be found here.
However, for looking for something a little more 1970s classic teen drama, you may enjoy what I’ve done as half of Regan and Bricheno, which can be found here.
Whether you enjoy the music or not, please do enjoy Hallowe’en. This half of the year brims with occasions, with November 5th and Christmas in the pipeline, and with the world seeming so bleak at times, a little sparkle never hurt anyone.
I wrote ‘Curly Wurly or two’ to avoid agonising over whether or not the plural might be Curly Wurlies.
A knacker is a person who removes and clears animal carcasses (dead, dying, injured) from private farms or public highways. Delightful.
As a American AND raised Catholic, I was often both scared and fascinated with all things spooky. I loved ghost stories and tales of the supernatural. I scared myself silly reading vampire lore books and in 3rd grade I read both "The Exorcist" and "Jaws" books and hands down the possibility of a shark attack was way more frighting! I loved making my own costume each year and going out trick or treating. We never bought costumes - we always just got out the tempura paint for make up and crafted them out of whatever we had. My dad was really good at costumes. Some of his costumes were - a sunflower, Moses and the Tooth Fairy. The tooth fairy was pretty scary cause he actually got a jar of teeth from his dentist! I was horrified!
As a very young Scottish lad (10 or 12 at most) I recall carving out turnips with a soup spoon. Not easy given they are almost the same consistency as a boulder. We then made 2 triangles for eyes (always!) and a mouth of either peg teeth or pointy (same as eyes) gnashers. A tiny candle was then inserted and some twine, that's white string to you young uns, for carrying purposes. A bin liner costume and off into the rain (again, Scotland) we went. Halloween was very much alive in the early 80s in the UK and I have the mental scars as evidence.
Halloweens coming, Halloweens coming, witches, ghosts and black bats. They are coming after youuuuu. Oohoohoohohhohhohh, BOOOOO!. We sang that to get our candy (or sweeties if North of the border!).