Halloween comes halfway point between the autumnal
equinox and winter solstice. Celts (as well as traditional
Japanese culture) considered equinoxes and solstices to be
the middle of a season. On the equinoxes, the sun rises due
east and sets due west. During the summer solstices, the sun
rises the furthest to the northeast and sets furthest in the
northwest, whereas in winter it rises the furthest southeast
and sets in the southwest. This has to do with how the
earth tilts
on its axis. But how did this ever get to be a day to
celebrate the dead?
In LiveScience.com, Corey Binns quotes astronomer Richard
Pogge as saying, "When the Celtic peoples were converted to
Christianity, they kept their festivals but renamed them to
conform to Christian practice." Celts (and modern Wiccans)
called the day Samhain, or "summer's end." It was their New
Year?s Eve. The Mayans were especially adept at compiling
calendars by watching the skies. Modern Mexico still
celebrates November 1st 2nd as the "Day of the Dead" (Dia
de Los Muertos), an ancient Aztec celebration of deceased
ancestors. Unlike Halloween, this is not a scary celebration,
despite the fact that artifacts of skeletons and skulls are
used. However, these images are humorous, not dark.
Why do Americans enjoy being scared on Halloween, as well
as at horror movies, by reading horror fiction and on scary
rides? A religious professor says he has the answer.
David Frankfurter says that various cultures have always
used costumes and monster masks to control their fears.
Some of this?for instance, African masks?are now collected
as works of art.
He says, "Parents are?anxious because bad things don't
come clearly marked. Criminals and disasters creep out from
innocent-seeming backgrounds. People who seem nice end up
being cruel. Terrible crimes are committed by people who
themselves
suffered as children. In real life it is very hard to label people
as evil or as monsters. But in the world of story or of horror
movies, evil is clearly marked. And putting on a monster mask
that conjures such fears allows children and adults an
opportunity to control and even laugh at the evil and the
horror that monster can provoke.
"The same thing has happened in the history of demonology.
Cultures imagined horrible demons with animal feet and bloody
fangs that eat babies. But as people exchanged stories about
where those demons lived and why they would act the way
they do, the demons became familiar and controllable.
Perhaps you could even ask the demon to protect you from
even worse demons. This is a common pattern in the religions
of Asia and of the ancient Near East."
Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
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