The modern festival of dressing up and playacting turns alarm into a game. Its a very long way from the remembrance of the deadElectric lamps in yellow plastic illuminate both religion and secularism nowadays. Neither looks healthy. Halloween in Britain is a completely fraudulent festival,which has no more in common with traditional observances for the dead than the druids who gather around Stonehenge at midsummer have with the rites celebrated when the stones were raised. It is pointless to talk about the Christian roots of the festival. It is what it is, and no one dresses up on the day for theological reasons, and thinks of the dead as they wait for the doorbell to ring.
Yet this lack of thought and considered purpose is what has made the festival popular. It is not something for which it is necessary to believe to win part. Dressing up and playing with alarm is its own reward. The sweet may also attend. It would be fairly incorrect to utilize the English word “sweets” since for the purposes of the ritual the children are all American,however British we are for the rest of the year.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com