Halloween and me

I bet I posted this exact same blog last year. Too bad, here I go again. I dont celebrate halloween. I was raised that way but I dont want people to think thats the reason why I've chosen to opt out of a huge holiday that pretty much everyone loves (except the freaks like me and my mother).

I've decided not to be ignorant about the things I do. I mean I want to know where the milk and the eggs and the meat that I eat come from. This decision "to know" has presented hardship for me. I now have to decide whether I am going to spend more money and more time aquiring food that I feel good about eating, or whether I am going to just ignore the truth and consume unhealthy products that have come from horrifically abused LIVING things (animals).

I'm interested in the other things that I spend my money on as well. Where were these items made, who made them, what type of business is selling them and what cost was really put into each THING that I acquire (at as little price as I can possibly aquire it at/ despite the actual cost of human life it's taken to produce)?

What in the world does this have to do with Halloween right? Well I've read alot about Ireland and my ancesters, it's history, traditions and folklore. I love that I'm Irish. I love that people who are responcible for my life lived their lives there. I love learning and knowing about my history, the history before me. In reading and learning all that I can about that wonderful place I've stumbled across alot of the things that made my mom decide not to celebrate halloween.

I know that Halloween is the festival which celebrates the one day in which the spiritual world (underworld) and the physical world (which we are living in) coexist. All those who have passed into the underworld, on this day, halloween, have an opportunity to come back and meet with or haunt those who remain here. The Irish have always been very superstitious (thats what people call it I guess). The problem with these spirits coming back is that if you're still living and you happened to have wronged one of them then you could be in for it. The living people, in fear of retribution, decided that the best thing to do would be to dress up, disguise themselves so that the spirit seeking revenge could not find them. In doing this they were also afforded the opportunity to play tricks on their neighbors, because they were, after all, disguised so no one would know it was them. Trick or treat!

Additionally, my mom let me carve a pumpkin once. It was fun and I felt it the hugest priviledge in all the world because I never got to before that day. BUT, originally pumkins were carved as places for the the wandering spirits to rest on their journey and the light represents the spirit residing in it.

The real problem here is that I do believe in spirits. I believe in hauntings and demons and the underworld (to some degree). I know that witches are real as are curses and spells and I can't really understand celebrating this dark spiritual aspect that is really truely apart of our world.

I think kids dressed in costumes are really super cute, but when I think about the history and the foundation to the costumes that those little kids are wearing on the day that the spiritual world and physical world are supposed to meet, well it sort of makes my stomach churn. I like jack o lanterns, but knowing where and why, knowing that each of those cute or scary or hilarious little pumpkins are ORIGINALLY supposed to have been a home for a traveling spirit, well... I just can't do it.

I know this pisses alot of people off, most people dont want to know where their food comes from or how the holiday they are celebrating originated. The food tastes good and the holiday is fun... but for me, not so much. I don't think demons and witiches and traveling spirits are something to celebrate and make fun with and I can not celebrate halloween.

Also, I appreciate that my mom raised me according to her convictions. I like that she ignored all the MANY MANY people that told her she was being foolish and super religious for not letting us trick or treat. Thank you mom.

(I don't judge people for celebrating this holiday because I realize that pretty much everyone does not see it how I do and I can fully understand that, I just ask that people would not judge me for NOT celebrating this holiday, because they do, and I don't like it, and quite frankly I think it's mean)