Newspapers / North Carolina School of … / Dec. 1, 2000, edition 1 / Page 7
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December 00 features page? Halloween: Candy Company Conspiracy? Annafrancesca Fuchs Halloween stands as a day where personified pump kins, lots of eerie decorations, skyrocketing blood sugar lev els, and a witch that looks re markably like your physics lab partner are regarded as the norm. Most regard this holiday as a chance to dress up in a scary - or merely wacky - cos tume. Others see Halloween as an excellent way to stock up on lots of free candy. (And for NCSSM students, free food of any form is absolutely wonder ful.) Maybe, just a few people ask themselves, “Why in the world do we have a holiday where you carve a pumpkin and go trick-or-treating?” The an swer lies within many ancient (and even bizarre) customs of Ireland and Medieval Europe. The word “Hallow een” is a contracted corruption of “All Hallows Eve,” which occurred the day before the Catholic observance in honor of saints November H', on “All Hallows Day” (or “All Saints Day” or “All Hallowmas”). However, in 5“' century BC Celtic Ireland, the summer officially ended October 31®'. November 1®' was actually the Celtic New Year, called “Samhain” (sow’ an), meaning “end of summer.” In Ireland, this festival was known as Samhain, or ‘La Samon, the Feast of the Sun. In Scotland, the celebration was known as Hallowe’en. On this day, the Celts be lieved that the diserribodied spir its of all those who had died throughout the preceding year would come back to search for living bodies they could pos sess for the next year. This was the spirits’ only hope for an af terlife. On the first day of the year, the Celts believed that all the laws of space and time were suspended, thus allowing the spirit world to inter mingle with the living world. Obviously, the still-living did not want to be possessed, so they would extinguish the fires in their homes to make them cold and un desirable the night be fore, on October 31®'. Then, they would dress up in ghoulish costumes and parade noisily around the neighbor hood, hoping their de structive manner would scare away any spirits looking to possess them. An alternative explana tion as to why the Celts extin guished their fires is simply that the Celtic tribes would relight their fires from a common source: the Druidic fire that was kept burning in the Middle of Ireland, at Usinach. Samhain was a sort of solar festival, and the Celts would practice sacred fire rituals. All fires except those of the Druids would have to be extinguished, and then house holders were levied a fee for the holy fire which burned at the Druids’ altars. Sometimes, the Celts would even bum someone at the stake they thought had been already possessed, as a sort oflesson to the spirits. The victim of a sacrifice would be burned in a wickerwork cage. Eventually, the Ro mans adopted the Celtic prac tices, but favored burning effigies to human sacrifices. Belief in spirit possession also diminished, and dressing up like ghosts, witches, and hobgob lins took on a more ceremonial role instead. The Romans ini M - tially had a holiday named “Feralia,” during the end of the Roman year, on Febraary 21, which was intended to give rest and peace to the departed. Pope Boniface later introduced All Saints’ Day to replace Feralia, and then Gregory III changed the date to November I®'. All Saint’s Day reached America in the 1840’s when Irish immigrants suffering from the potato famine fled overseas. At that time. New Englanders en joyed pulling pranks as part of the Halloween festivities, such as tipping over outhouses and unhinging fences. Samhain still exists to day, and it is a time for getting rid of weaknesses (as pagans once killed weak animals which were least likely to survive the winter). Practitioners of Samhain write down their weak nesses on a piece of paper or parchment, and then toss it in a fire. Additionally, cakes are baked as offerings for the souls of the dead. In modem Scot land, some people still celebrate by building bonfire on hilltops and high ground, and then dancing around the flames. The bonfire is called a Hallowe’en bleeze, and custom once in cluded dig ging a trench around the fire to symbolize the sun. Conversely, trick-or- treating has its origins with ninth-century Europeans rather than the Irish Celts. On Novem ber 2'"', “All Souls Day,” early Christians would walk from vil lage to village begging for “soul cakes,” which were made out of square pieces of bread with cur rants. This activity was called “souling”. With each soul cake a beggar would receive, he or she would promise a prayer on behalf of the dead relatives of the donor. It was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayers - even from complete strangers - would help a soul reach heaven. Another practice relat ing to trick-or-treating occured in preparation for St. Columb Kill, in which old Irish peasants would go door to door asking for money, breadcake, butter, cheese, nuts, and fmit. The Jack-o-lantem, on the other hand, probably origi nated from Irish folklore. The Irish tale describes Jack, a man notorious for being a trickster and drunkard, tricking Satan into climbing a tree. Jack then carved the image of a cross on the tree’s tmnk, and Satan was trapped. Jack made a deal with the devil that, if he would never tempt him again, he would prom ise to let him down from the tree. After Jack died, he was denied entrance to Heaven because of his evil ways, but he could not cross in to Hell either because he had tricked the devil. In stead, the devil game him a single ember that would light his way through the frigid darkness between Heaven and Hell. To keep the ember glowing longer. Jack placed it in a hollowed-out turnip. The Irish initially used a turnip as their “Jack’s Lan terns,” but when they immi grated to America, they realized pumpkins were much more plen tiful. In this manner, the Jack- O-Lantem in American became a hollowed-out pumpkin lit with an ember. The light from the pumpkin symbolizes the souls of the dead or goblins freed from the dead. And it is in this man ner that Druidic fire rituals, beg gars asking for soulcakes, and a poor drunkard named Jack became an integral part of our culture. It’s amazing how com plex our holidays truly are. bRETT Stewart What’s up with the Real World? Can we get a reality check? 1 mean, come on, no one lives anything like the seven on MTV’s “The Real World”. Yeah, we all have our issues, but we aren’t thrown into some huge house with seven of the most difficult people to live with. However, “The Real World,” along with TRL, still manages to grab the highest ratings on MTV. It’s actually the unrealistic quali ties that keep us glued to the TV set at 10:00 every Tuesday night The cast is usually the same each season; each mem ber is opinionated, strong- willed, and has some unusual quality. First off, Julie just doesn’t know what to do with herself She left her Mormon life at Brigham Young University to live in an environment where her religion is dependent upon her dedication. The only thing is, she’s got a bigger problem, her parents. Her struggle to gain respect from her parents to live independently and make deci sions on her own is something that she’s going to have learn how to handle. She is naive and confused, but her open-minded qualities give her a great deal of potential in life. Melissa is the “I’ve gotta be the center of attention all the time” girl. The girl has issues...she is nothing more than a drama queen and she needs to learn how to compose herself Her identity crisis and attention obsession is enough to keep us watching just to see what ludicrous thing she will do next. It is time for Melissa to deal with her problems and move onto lead a happy life, if such a thing is possible. David, is the “I’m gonna be perfect” man. He has an obsession like Melissa; how ever, his obsession is living up to high self-expectations. He works out everyday, has a 4.0 GPA, doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, and has high aspira tions. He’s pretty detached from all the events occurring in the house. He has all the women he can handle and doesn’t seem to seem to have any complaints. Matt, the individual among the group, is the one that thinks creatively. He, like David chills out and stays away from conflict. “Supafly,” as he has come to be known, says enough about his style. The man loves hip-hop culture, and knows more about break danc ing than any white guy I’ve seen. Cruising the streets in some souped-up Honda, Matt is sure to attract people with his extraordinary personality and good taste. Cocky, confident, and ambitious, Jamie is the practical one on “The Real World” scene. The guy knows how to manage a good balance be tween his friends, relationships, and his career. Recent advance ments on the show some spark between Jamie and Julie, but their contrasting personalities and view points would prove to be devastating to a relationship. He is cunning and on the edge kind of guy...if he doesn’t get caught up in his close group of guy friends, he might just be the next businessman of the year. We’ll just have to see won’t we? Loyal to her friends and family, Kelly is Miss Charm. She has heads turning from ev ery direction as her beauty catches every eye. With her overwhelming self-confidence and attractive qualities Kelly is sure to be a success at no mat ter what she does. Kelly’s cur rent dilemma involves her dedication to her boyfriend, Pe ter. Her supposed love for him makes her want to stay, but the logical side of her makes her see the reasons for not leaving. Watch out! When Kelly comes into play, she’s bound to get her way. Lastly, we all know that every “Real World” show has a homosexual cast member. It’s almost asusmed that one mem ber of each tribe of Real Worlders will either develop a homosexual relationship or dis cover his or her’s queemess. This season’s pick is none other than Danny. His role on the show mainly involves late night escapades with Kelly and Julie. 1 have to say, most guys would be pretty jealous of his intimate relations with the girls. Despite these temptations Danny re mains loyal to his boyfriend Paul. His faith and devotion to the relationship shows signs of promise for the two of them af ter the show ends. Regardless of all the ridiculous whining and com plaining, we seem to still love the drama between the cast members. As complicated as the entanglements on “The Real World” can be, we still some how try to find their relevance to our own lives. The exagger ated drama shown in the mul tiple relationship disasters, unknown identities, and paren tal conflicts is something that everyone hopes to be caught up with. As far as it all goes, the annoyance, unreal qualities, over exaggeration will continue to make “The Real World” a suc cess.
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