Hallowe'en

Walking to class this morning wearing my cozy Gators hoodie, I was concentrating more on how tired I was than the world around me. But when I stopped and took my usual daily copies of the Alligator and the Gainesville Sun, I noticed several articles about Hallowe'en. Which started me thinking about how our holidays were born.

Think about it - Hallowe'en evolved from a holiday observed by the Catholics: All Hallow's Eve, on October 31st, followed by All Soul's Day on November 1st. These holidays evolved from the Roman festival Anthesteria, which honored the dead. It was originally celebrated in February and lasted three days, but Pope Boniface IV introduced All Souls' in the 7th century to replace it, and moved to May 13. It was changed to November 1st by Pope Gregory III.

Anthesteria was one of the biggest Roman festivals because men, women and children all participated together, which was fairly rare. Held in honor of Bacchus, a dying-and-reviving god, it went something like this:
Day 1: “Opening the Pithoi” (Pithoigia)
pruning of grapevines, opening of new wine
Day 2: “Libations” (Choes): communal drunkenness
hieros gamos (archon basileus)
Day 3: “The Pots” (Chytroi): dead walk the earth
offerings to Hermes (Psychopompos)
closing ritual cry:
“get out, spirits! the Anthesteria has ended!”

Eventually the 'communal drunkenness' was replaced with feasting, and as time passed the customs evolved that on All Souls' Day children would go from door to door begging All Souls' cakes from the housewives. Sound familiar?

Of course all sorts of other traditions and religions have gotten mixed in. I think there's a lot of Druid influence in our current celebrations.

And now it's an excuse for us to dress up as Playboy bunnies and One-Eyed-One-Horned-Flying-Purple-People-Eaters and the Doppler Effect and football players and devils, to get very drunk and eat heaps of high-calorie candy, and party like there's no tomorrow.

There's nothing like social evolution!