Episode 2 - Samhain the Original Halloween
We discuss the Celtic Festival of Samhain the precursor to Halloween and as well as how Halloween is celebrated around the world. Our Tale from Beyond this episode is My Neighbour Small.
Transcript
Karolina 0:30
When one day and before noon begins between midnight and the first second after this hour, the impossible time when all is possible.
Hello and welcome traveller.
I will be your guide tonight as we explore the mysterious and the mccobb histories both strange and forgotten and weave a tangled web between fact and fiction.
Alexander Ballard 0:56
So I'm Alexander
Karolina 0:58
Oh, and I'm Karolina.
Alexander Ballard 0:59
Oh yeah. And welcome again. This is our second podcast. And this is going to be in honor of the season. We're going to be talking into some Samhain traditions and Halloween. But to get started, we have another piece of original fiction. This is a short number called my neighbor small. My neighbor small is a strange and squirrely fellow. I often see him puttering around his garden muttering to his plants and kicking the weeds. There's always been something off about it. He exudes a vaguely creepy vibe and the comments he makes often come from nowhere. I've never wanted to gossip. My friends and I have often discussed the peculiar behaviors of Mr. Small when they come around for a glass of wine with the beautiful flowers in my garden. Mrs. Smile often used to join us on these occasions but none of us have seen her at some time. We of course would never presume or suggest that anything untoward has fallen out. It's hard not to notice that it's just small. Increase the evannex is the last time any of us saw his wife. She was one of the most beautiful, charming, passionate women I've ever met. They were childhood sweethearts who never really been with anyone else. As the head of the local gardening society. I try not to judge people too harshly, but it's hard not instead of one's garden a reflection of the person. My lawn for instance, is finely manicured, but not a way to be seen. My flowers are the tallest and straightest in the neighborhood. Are the rose bushes. I recently planted her already showing signs of being praised when the trick of course is good quality fertilizer and lots of love and attention. Now for smiles Gary is always unkempt, it's clear they take no pride in it. Just probably why he watches me so intently when he thinks a publican I can feel him staring at me through the windows of his house. It's nothing more than envy. Nothing more. Not something that ever stoop so lowest feel for Mrs. Fall must have been battled with his paranoia every day. I'm certain of it. That's why she preferred My company is those little luck she gave him we were together at times our hands accidentally touched. It was so obvious that she was trying to tell me even if she was too afraid to do so. I think Mr. Smile must have suspected that she had feelings toward me. I often see them looking towards my house that my window blinds. This is most My dearest friends so I kept a vigilant watch over. It was always surprising how much we had in common and how many accidental encounters often the fellas, the number of times I've run into them at the grocery store, or hurt one of the many charity events you organize can only be filled fakes way of bringing us together. When the universe is giving us such a sign. She and she herself has made it plain for all to be seen would have been a crime not to act. Mr. Small was out of town that weekend his beautiful wife home alone and no doubt needed friendship. I haven't have a number of chilled bottles for Favorite white wine on hand when I went to visit. The wind flow copiously that night she had a wistful wanting Look in my eyes and succulent with the lips. I couldn't help but kiss her with all our pent up passion. It must have been that she was surprised startled, she pulled back and what some who didn't know as well as I didn't call shock and disgust. What happened next was hardly my fault but somehow she ended up struck appealing the head with a bottle was hardly any blood at all. Normally, there's so much more. I wrapped too tightly in a garbage bag and under the cover of the moonless night I buried Mrs. Smaller my garden kind of goes over her because she had legs so that everyone can enjoy her beauty as much as I do was too small my suspect decreasing behavior can be nothing notes with sideways glances away he refuses to be my gaze. Something will have to be done about the next moonless night. Simple flowers there's always other things to go
Karolina 5:17
that's probably creepy.
Alexander Ballard 5:18
I went for probably creepy vibe.
Karolina 5:21
Yeah, I
think I think Mr. Small better strike first.
Alexander Ballard 5:25
Yeah,
Karolina 5:25
these are numbered.
Alexander Ballard 5:27
I tried to get a nice little turn there where it gets progressively creepy and more stalkerish as it goes on. Mm hmm.
Karolina 5:35
Yes. This this neighbor is is definitely not one that I would like to have.
Alexander Ballard 5:44
No, no, no.
Karolina 5:47
I'm going to steer clear of people with lovely gardens.
Alexander Ballard 5:51
As she should we can't trust personally good good, right. Looks
Karolina 5:55
like it'd be people that you have that
that don't like anybody walking on their grass, it's grass. There's something very suspicious about somebody who won't let people walk on their grass.
Alexander Ballard 6:08
Well, if you ever been to Cambridge
Karolina 6:12
perhaps
Alexander Ballard 6:14
so it Cambridge is famous for having lots of lawn to greenspace that only fellows are allowed to
Karolina 6:21
oh wait a second. Okay. Cambridge on knock Cambridge Ontario
Alexander Ballard 6:25
Cambridge University.
Karolina 6:26
I see no then I have not
Alexander Ballard 6:28
okay, so Cambridge University has lots of lovely green space that only fellows are allowed to walk on regular students and common folk are not allowed to step upon the lawn in the garden.
Karolina 6:39
Oh wow. Okay the privilege to be able to step on that lawn Oh,
Alexander Ballard 6:44
yeah. So lucky to be even even allowed on the grounds you know, great being the season. We're going to start off by talking about Samhain or more correctly Samhain not
Karolina 6:58
wait. Samhain
Alexander Ballard 7:00
So when is the saw when I saw when
Karolina 7:02
I was never I wasn't ever sure how to pronounce that. So I chose not to sound when
Alexander Ballard 7:09
Sowell Yeah, that's a tricky many YouTube videos on how to pronounce it. Perfect. I'm gonna be honest, from now on. I may completely butcher some of the Irish and Celtic words that they're gonna come up but I will try my best.
Karolina 7:23
Sorry Irish people.
Alexander Ballard 7:25
I'm sorry Irish people.
Karolina 7:27
He's a brit
Alexander Ballard 7:29
Oh, yeah. Don't hold it against this still likes chance to grab the podcast? Um, yeah, so sawin was one of the big four festivals of the Celtic calendar that celebrated around November 1. The other three would be we're in blue on February 1 beltane. On May 1, and Luna saw on August 1. And we know that these are some of the oldest and most important festivals to the Celts, for instance, there are two Neolithic burial mounds so we've discovered one is called the mount of hostages and another Karen l at silver Nikola, which are both kind of tuned got a passage to and what happens is twice a year the sun hits just the right moment to illuminate the hallway that is the passage tomb. It's their large circular mound with carved stone pillars on either side and a large open passage and on in bowl and saw hain saw when the sun hits just the right Zenith so that it can actually illuminate the whole passage, you know, the gateway to the other world. One of the other interesting it's important to note about the Celtic practices is that that was quite interesting is that they mark the day as starting and ending at sundown versus sunrise which we normally do. So based on our calendar, then November 1 would have started on October 31. Eve. So sundown October 31 is when saw when begins.
Karolina 9:01
Ah, okay, so that would be there November 1 or
Alexander Ballard 9:05
Yeah, November 1 would have been it would be I guess this Saturday at
Karolina 9:10
sundown. Listen.
Okay, that's cool.
Alexander Ballard 9:15
This is also probably where the idea that saw when is the Celtic New Year comes from as well. There isn't really any hard evidence of this. But the idea of it being New Year's comes from two 19th century scholars. So john rise and Sir James Fraser, who wrote about it in their books on folklore. There's also another thing that supports his argument in that. So there's a thing called the colony calendar, which is found in colony France in 1897. Now, this is a kind of peg calendar, and it dates back to like the third century in Gaul, and it shows a five year cycle of Celtic ears And we know that from this calendar the first month the calendar is someone else. And then there's some scholarly debate whether Saman as means summer, or whether it means sawin.
Karolina 10:12
sounds a little bit like so in.
Alexander Ballard 10:13
Yeah. So it's, it could be either, I guess it's whether it begins at the beginning of summer or beginning at the beginning of winter,
Karolina 10:22
right? Would you like to begin your year? Nice and warm and toasty and happy with lots of light? Or would you like to begin? You're here all somber and the darkest time?
Alexander Ballard 10:34
Yeah.
Karolina 10:35
I wonder?
Alexander Ballard 10:37
Yeah, well, we'll never really know, unless we find more archaeological evidence, unfortunately. The other thing that's interesting about the calendar, they have 12 months plus two extra months. So not every year has the same number of months, there are two extra months that appear throughout the five year cycle. So some years will have 13 months in them. So you know, like, maybe 2020 has an extra month in it again. Oh, God,
Karolina 11:02
no, please. No.
Alexander Ballard 11:03
It certainly feels like it's got an extra month in it. Now. I
Karolina 11:06
think we're on 98 now.
But yes, please, please, no more. Okay, but I get it. So yeah. You know, within that five year cycle, when your will have 1314 months, or
Alexander Ballard 11:22
Yeah, like 12 to 13 months, I guess depending on the year, I'm there monster also divided into two halves, the first half is 15 days long. The second half is either 14 or 15 days long. And the the word according the calendar that breaks up these words, it's the thing that means renewal, or rebirth, that sort of thing. So which some scholars think means it signified the the new moon I'm a little iffy on that part. Because to me, like, if their day starting ends at sundown, I would have thought that their months would have followed a similar suit to the month would have gone New Moon, the middle of the month would be the full moon and then go into the new moon. Everybody end,
Karolina 12:11
right.
So your months would actually follow the lunar cycle rather than follow some sort of like, arbitrary
Alexander Ballard 12:18
so the calendar is definitely a solar lunar calendar. So that it's there's a special kind of counted, it's a mix of solar and lunar like ours is solar lunar similar. Like the reason we have, you know, our lengths a month, they're partly driven off the the lunar cycle, you know, and so the fit Yeah, so there's also why they have the extra couple of months to train, I guess, to try and get things back instead of having leap years they have, though an extra month in the works.
Karolina 12:44
I like that if that month is in the summer.
I love it. I'm all down for that
Alexander Ballard 12:49
extra month of rent. I know that's not the way that works. Some extra money to pay rent extra. Ah,
Karolina 12:58
no, no, because you pay monthly. I don't know.
Alexander Ballard 13:02
Yeah.
Karolina 13:03
13 months.
Alexander Ballard 13:05
This was if you get paid annually, if you like if an annual salary, do you get paid more on long years than you would on short years? Was it you just get less per month?
Karolina 13:14
I think you just get less per month if it's an annual salary. Because it doesn't
Alexander Ballard 13:19
seem fair, though. An extra 30 days that month.
Karolina 13:24
Right. But I mean, if you
Well, if you get paid every two weeks in there, two months out of the year where you get three pays and every other month it's only two pays, which is very unfair. I feel like it should be.
Alexander Ballard 13:38
Yeah. Yeah, good point. Good point, I suppose. Yeah, you'd have to have some accommodation for that. Yeah. Um now most of the surviving calculations come from Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man these days as well as Cornwall and Brittany and a few other places. But at one point the the Celts are the preeminent culture in Central Europe. You know, by 1200 BC, they were everywhere. In fact, the oldest site we've found of Celtic origin is in Austria.
Karolina 14:12
Really?
Alexander Ballard 14:13
Yeah. The oldest known Celtic site is actually in Austria.
Karolina 14:16
Okay, I had no idea. This is fascinating.
Alexander Ballard 14:20
Yeah. And we know that by 1200 bc they'd spread you know, to Gaul and down into Iberia to the Brittany's. And we know for certain that by the time Julius Caesar arrived in Britain in the first century BC, they were one of the main clans in Britain. And we know that they're not the only ones in Britain because there wasn't. There's a Greek navigator of scholar who went up to Britain during his travels and he makes a clear distinction between Britons and Celts and the other tribes there. Yeah.
Karolina 14:53
Do we know if that is just his distinction or if there are any writings, I guess?
From
Celtic writings perhaps?
Alexander Ballard 15:02
Well sure if they had a
we do know they had some language in their head some language and carving system. Again, I haven't looked into it hundred percent we know that like the, the calendar we found is probably written in Latin because by the time the Romans invaded Gaul and started conquering the things, the Celtic languages pretty much leaves Europe. It gets driven out through a process called synchronism, where like, the Celtic culture mixes with the Roman culture and they start to speaking what's called Vulgar Latin, you know, not the fine Latin Of course, but the the everyday Latin. Yeah, but the counts had a huge impact on Roman military strategy at the moment, cavalry and horsemanship practices they all got from the Celts they incorporate into the system. They started using the Sparta which is the the Celtic cavalry weapon, and even they absorbed the Celtic god of horses a pony into the Roman Pantheon, you know, so there was a lot of intermixing and bred of the Celtic people. The only place it really the language survived. It's called like the insular Celts was in like Britain, mainly in Scotland and Ireland, you know, with Roman leech never went you know, the Romans never really made it that far into Scotland or Ireland. You know, they certainly tried. They did try. Yeah, so, when looking into a lot of the Celtic stuff and the sound pain, one of the challenges A lot of it has been absorbed and reimagined. Through Neo paganism the Celtic restoration movement and Wicca you know, we might try and touch on some of these practices and beliefs that you know have been sort of taken inspiration from their Celtic roots, but we'll try and focus more on what we could pieced together from the old customs and mythology. So sawin marked the end of the harvest season started a long night winter is upon you. It's the last the crops been harvested. Cattle have been brought in from the summer pastures into the winter pastures. And it was a time when the veil between the worlds this world and the other world was at its thinness. The he the dwellers of the mound who lived beneath the earth would come out the tooth Donna would leave tuna, Garg and emrich albick to travel the earth. Those are two lands in the Celtic Otherworld, fragmenting the land of youth and the other meaning the Isle of apple trees.
Karolina 17:52
Oh, that one sounds pleasant.
Alexander Ballard 17:54
Well, apples actually play a big part in Celtic folklore. There's like all sorts of myths about them. They're one of the safe sacred trees. In fact, there's some of the apples are considered to grant immortality. There's even stories of like a legendary king who was imprisoned within an apple, who was eaten by a salmon that only resurfaced once every seven years. And in fact, Druids would make their wrongs from either apple wood or from your wood.
Okay, that's, that's
Karolina 18:23
very interesting.
I could see.
I guess maybe that influence in the Bible with Adam and Eve Apple, right.
Alexander Ballard 18:33
Well, yeah, apples play a lot. You can see some of the like, borrowings and some influence from like some of the Greek mythology because apples were probably brought to Ireland from Romans and all of that they brought them that far north. And there's one story I was reading about, had talks about a silver branch with three golden apples that play beautiful music when tapped, you know, and the apple of immortality and the Golden Apple that's, you know, reference that in Greek mythology as well, you know, Mm hmm. Um, so at the at the festival sawin. According to that surviving calendar, it seems to imply it lasted for three days. So not just one night it's over. But it was a big three day festival
Karolina 19:16
to basically October 31, November 1, and November 2. Yeah. So what we know today as Halloween All Saints Day and All Souls Day
Alexander Ballard 19:28
Yeah, that's when you celebrated saw when it was a time of feasting and relevee great bonfires lit to ward off the darkness and dispel negative emotions. In fact, that's something you have it all for the big festivals they all have bonfires, bonfire seemed to be a big renewal and spiritual cleansing aspect and Celtic folklore.
Karolina 19:49
Right and also it was autumn and very cold.
Alexander Ballard 19:51
It would have been very cold. And in fact, the bonfire stuff still survives this day, you know, there's still huge sawin bonfires and other similar nights happening in Ireland in Scotland, and a few weeks later, we have it in England, you know, we have Bonfire Night, which is a little different, you know? Hmm.
Karolina 20:09
So November 5,
Alexander Ballard 20:10
it's the fifth of November. Remember, remember the fifth of November. So the druids would hold rites and rituals to honor the dead and celebrate the harvest, which people would burn cow bones, the sign of their wealth being, you know, cattle being one of the clearest measurements of a person's prosperity in early cultures. It's the time when farmers would pick their animals to slaughter that window from their herds and flocks, you know, they'd be like, okay, sorry, chubby rabbit, you're the one we're gonna have for dinner this month, you know,
Karolina 20:43
sorry, Bill.
Alexander Ballard 20:45
The one of the potential customers, they're not hundred percent sure if it happened or not, was the relighting of the heart fires. So there's some stories of them basically, dousing all the fires that within the home. And then he would take a torch from the communal bonfire that had been blessed by the local Druid to be light your fires in your home for that winter. You know, it's a sign of rebirth and renewal. We know that within households, there was lots of gathering, they practice a form of practice all sorts of ritual magics, you know, there was a lot of divinations. And the work for instance, one of the things that households would practice is they would hang a pair of hazelnuts by the fireplace to see if a couple was a good match, when other communal gathering was they would place apples in a tub of water or dangled from string, and a person would borrow for the apple to see if they would be the next to marry. You know, there it's also a time when they do have to also practice a form of pyromancy as well, they would supposedly be the future and the portends for the coming winter and the next year through the fire in the sacred flames that would tell the the community's fate.
Karolina 21:53
Well, that would have been a cool job. Okay.
I've always wondered like what
occupation I would I would want back in the day if I lived in you know, Ireland are different places, but I think I would definitely want to be a druid. Something's on fire and meet people's futures.
Alexander Ballard 22:12
I think Yeah, you could have qualified to be Druid you could have been a warrior woman there have plenty of cases of Celtic warrior women fighting on the battlefields,
Karolina 22:21
which we might talk about next week.
Alexander Ballard 22:22
Um, the Celts were also very warlike people. So there was a lot of conflict, but Samhain was also a traditional time of truces and ending of hostilities. So it's war it's winter. Like there's one of the stories from Celtic folklore for instance, is talking about a psalm hain sawin cattle rustling because normally he was a cattle in the summer in the spring it was come so unheard of doing it in the winter that the people involved were completely taken unaware you know. So you can see you know, all these you know, time to declare peace. There's also a couple of stories of human sacrifice, but they don't seem to be any real evidence this you know, there's you know, the Romans like Julius Caesar talked about the Celts being so violent and ruthless they would kill anyone you know, but he he was at war at the time so it's you gotta take that with a grain of salt
Karolina 23:18
aganda Yeah, definitely Roman propaganda.
Alexander Ballard 23:21
But one thing we do know for certain from the archaeological and overwhelming that is the Celts like to collect human heads. They were big into beheadings they would be head their enemies parade their heads on spikes, you know, you know, this is probably were like the idea of placing the turnip plant on a spike. I mean, we talked about this in last week's episode. I mean, when they do still do it in Portugal, you know? So partly one of the things they probably did here was like place ritualized heads on pikes to ward off evil and show their success.
Karolina 23:53
So So do we know what employments they used for this? Was it access? Um, well,
Alexander Ballard 23:59
they used a lot of Spears, they would have used spears and swords and axes
Karolina 24:03
to decapitate specifically
Alexander Ballard 24:05
decap it I don't know what specifically they would have used some sort of blade probably an axis sword.
Karolina 24:11
I feel like if we could go back in the future and just get them that gear team it would have
just made their day.
Alexander Ballard 24:18
Yeah, well, they seem to a lot of the like the mythology and folklore they seem to be Spears seem to be the big weapon in Celtic mythology, a lot of their famous weapons and people to all these spheres. So perhaps you can't decapitate some of the sphere. So you need like a good decapitation blade. Well, you
Karolina 24:36
could it would just take longer than probably what
Alexander Ballard 24:40
yeah, it would be very inefficient. You know, like,
Karolina 24:43
pokey pokey pokey.
Alexander Ballard 24:46
Yeah. They also we also know they placed carved turnip lanterns around when sealed and to ward off the restless souls of the dead unable to reach the afterlife during the sawin keep The malevolent versions of the he, you know, during the old times people would avoid traveling at night doing the software and you know, they'd make sure they stay close to home, they avoid the darkness, if they were forced to travel, they would make sure that they carried salt or cold iron in their hands to ward off spirits, you know, people would even leave out though offerings to the sheet, you know, it was sort of to get the blessing and boon so that their family would survive the winter, you know, they would leave out like a saucer of milk or cream or a little flagging of beer and a bit of a harvest, you know, to get the benefit of the, you know, good spirits, you know,
Karolina 25:37
cookies and milk,
Alexander Ballard 25:38
kind of like cookies and milk, but that's more of a Germanic tradition, you will is obviously from Norse mythology. Yeah. And by the 16th century, we know that one of the things that had been incorporated into sawin was a custom called guising mumming. We're not really sure when this started, but we know is had reached popularity by the 16th century. Maybe it's because you know, the night was less scary by then the he maybe they weren't getting so involved in human life and they weren't causing terrible tricks and pranks on you. They weren't killing your cattle and stealing your wives during the night, you know, but some people would go they would dress up in costumes and they would go house to house reciting Bible verses or songs and exchange for gifts of food. As more you know, this probably you know, they would wear masks and conceal their identities by harkens back to some of the old druidic customs is probably during the older sawin festivals, you know, the druids would have worn masks and other people would have mourned masks. We know they didn't just wear masks, there was also like they cover their face with veils where they would paint their faces. They even cover their faces with ashes from the bonfire, which seems to have been more of one of those ancient druidic customs, like where the Sacred Ashes were seen as cleansing and warding off evil. So you can quite easily imagine like an ancient soul and festival where people would be blessed the jury come person to person in the village and coat their face and ashes to you know, word off death for that winter. And it's not this summer to a Catholic tradition, if you will, that happens, called Ash Wednesday, where the priest goes and blesses their congregation with the ashes from the palm and you know, makes the cross and in fact, Ash Wednesday. It come it came about from Pope Gregory the first he was he was the one who introduced it. And it's, you know, very similar to the old Celtic tradition of using ashes to coat your face as a blessing. So it's not on possible that he got it from the Celtic people as a way of christianizing some of their beliefs. And we know that, for instance, only a few years after grader first died, Bond effect, the third created a holiday of All Saints Day, All Saints Day was originally may 13. Oh, that's what it was originally celebrated. But about 150 years after that, Gregory is a third moved it to November 1. And that's probably more than anything to try and absorb that pagan custom you to help better Christian eyes, you know, the Celtic followers of Christianity, you know, because they're still very much still Christian, but they're practicing the old we believe so to try and take those old beliefs and absorb them into Christianity. It very much did back then he was like, absorbing cultures it was influencing. In fact, one of the other big festivals embl celebrates the goddess Bridget, who is Associate spring fertility healing pottery and smithing. But her festival is now st Bridget's day. And she is considered a Christian saint and no longer a pagan god. What is that when I go? Spring? That is in the spring in bowl is if I remember correctly, in February 1.
Karolina 29:07
Oh, right before spring?
Alexander Ballard 29:09
Yeah, he was so St. Bridges, St. Bridges, de have little wicker people and women would walk through the streets and celebrate the coming of spring and you know,
Karolina 29:21
so so living in Canada as we do. I'm just trying to imagine the women walking through the street in on February 1, welcoming spring in minus 25.
Alexander Ballard 29:38
Little wickerman with some good or bad
Karolina 29:41
it could be burning them for warm.
Alexander Ballard 29:44
Ah, no, I'm sure if you'd like you know, there might put a trap town during the winter during the winter, you can see all sorts of inappropriate outfits. So you might be asking yourself what about these malevolent spirits and as he mentioned before, I you know, I can't leave without talking to Got a few of them right? I gotta mention a few of the good ones. So, one such creature you might account on sawin was a being known as the doula hon. The Headless rider upon a black horse. They carry a whip made from human spine. They carry their decaying head in their hands, a mouth split across the head and a gruesome grin. The doula hand also known divided upon horse drawn carriages made from coffins and tombstones, the carriages way lit by burning candles with skulls that adorned It is said that no gate can stop the doula hand in its path. The writer silent for the entire journey from dusk until dawn, speaking only once to say the name of the soul it has come to collect. All the an object made of gold or the dance light can drive back the doula and another one is the Banshee. These are tall, ghastly faced women, her eyes haggard and bloodshot she dresses in a grey cloak or green dress, the Banshee mourns willfully and bitterly crying and warning of him and Death to the one close to those who hear his cries. even said that on someone of great importance is going to die then many Banshee will gather to weep and wail their cries loud enough to break glass. And the third and final one for this evening is lady Gwen and her black pig the lead the Wild Hunt, a host affair host of fairies and spectral hounds souls the dead that come to ravage across the night sky, ominous portant and of mass death to follow to see the wild tons to learn of upcoming plague of war and of the boat and those unfortunate enough to be caught by the Wild Hunt of their souls and body ripped away from this world. dragged back to the other one the hosts returned to Wednesday again,
Karolina 31:50
I didn't see her I think maybe about November of last year. Oh, yeah. Uh huh. Coming play guy.
Alexander Ballard 31:59
Should have warned us
Karolina 32:00
should have warned you. I'm sorry. It's my fault.
Alexander Ballard 32:03
It's all your fault. Yeah. 2020 hundred percent you
Karolina 32:07
totally my belt?
Alexander Ballard 32:09
Oh, yeah. So that's my, what I have for sawin so bolt your door is light your turn of lamps to wood off the darkness. You know, less than night creatures prey upon you this saw it.
Karolina 32:22
Okay, so this tradition turned into what we know as Halloween in North America, and likely England, potentially, maybe Ireland,
and a few other places in the world.
Right.
So,
um, I know we were talking last week about All Saints Day in an All Souls Day and I hail from Eastern Europe. So in our family, like in my family's tradition, and I mentioned last week that that we did not traditionally celebrate Halloween or Sam hain
salwen, my apologies.
So I wait, we celebrated was I Eastern European Roman Catholic tradition. I was All Saints Day, and a little bit All Souls Day. So we went to the cemetery, or my my family sold as us back in Poland. They go to the cemetery and on November 1, and November 2, and they like candles for the dead. And it's a huge, huge celebration of the damage. So to the cemetery, they're usually full and speaking to one of my grandmother's. And this past week. She went, she went about a week ago so that she could avoid the crowds because there's a pandemic. So so there are people who celebrate Halloween or this time a little bit differently. So that got me thinking how do people celebrate Halloween outside of North America and Western traditions. So in Japan, they have absorbed a lot of the North American traditions I in terms of celebrating Halloween,
but they celebrated a little bit differently. So in Japan, they have amazing street parties, okay. So house parties are not as common in Japan largely because they have much smaller living spaces. And also culturally it is not the value privacy. Okay, so walking around to people's homes and knocking on their doors and disturbing them is not something that that they see as as being comfortable with so these street parties are outside of the house and down a populated street somewhere. And they're quite large spectacles apparently. So it's almost impossible to get into a restaurant or a bar or club, or any popular Halloween spot in Japan without an advanced reservation or ticket. So usually, like, if you can't get into one of these places, you go to a street festival. And I assume that that's probably not happening happening this
year. So that's unfortunate.
Alexander Ballard 35:35
Yeah, probably not feel
Karolina 35:36
like Halloween is different all over the globe.
Alexander Ballard 35:42
But trigger trading for kids
Karolina 35:44
definitely no trick or treating,
which also doesn't happen in Japan.
So regularly, children do not Trick or treat, there is more of a plan trick or treating event. So they're more organized collaborative
events.
Alexander Ballard 35:58
So like a Pokemon Go check it out.
Karolina 36:01
Go to the Oh,
I hope all of you Americans go vote next week.
Alexander Ballard 36:11
I've already voted
Karolina 36:13
or have already voted yes.
But yes, sort of a nap. But they will. Children usually walk around organized collaborative events, little parties, at parties
to go pick up some candy
and some treats. So they don't really knock on. They don't knock our neighbor's doors, because that's not seen as, as culturally appropriate
in Japan.
So another thing that kids do is called a stamp rally. So children are given a map and a stamp card at a special trick or treating event. And they must go to designated points to collect candy or to collect stamps. And then they exchange these stamp the stamp card for candy or some sort of treat at the end.
Alexander Ballard 37:03
Okay.
Karolina 37:04
So a lot of public spaces apparently participate in this so train stations. That any sort of like big public place, public parks,
Alexander Ballard 37:16
almost sounds like like a scavenger hunt kind of thing.
Karolina 37:19
It does. Yeah.
Alexander Ballard 37:21
I wasn't
Karolina 37:21
able to figure out if children actually dress up in costumes while they're doing this. But I know that people who go to the street parties into the bars and clubs definitely do dress up in costumes.
Alexander Ballard 37:33
Yeah, I find like I think dressing up as a costume is like either do it when you're really little or then when you're all doing it becomes you become sexy blank. I feel
Karolina 37:41
like that's more of a North American sick.
He's apparently in Japan.
Is there more fun rather than scary? Or? I'm not sure how much they do this sexy nurse or the sexy envelope?
Alexander Ballard 37:55
Oh, yeah, like sexy envelope costume.
Yes.
Open her.
Karolina 38:02
You can make anything sexy.
But um, they have but in in Japan, it's more of the I guess the cause play so I guess there's a little bit of the sexy
component to it.
Alexander Ballard 38:17
Yeah. No.
Karolina 38:20
But have you ever wondered what Halloween is like in Russia? I have you have me too. I even though I hail from a place that is close to Russia, their traditions are very different.
Alexander Ballard 38:34
Soviet Russia government go house to house and check on you. Yes,
Karolina 38:45
that sounds a lot more fun than it is.
I'm sure.
So I'm like New Japan, or Russia has also kind of taken the North American Halloween tradition and made it theirs.
So
after the fall of the Soviet Empire in the 90s, Halloween actually started to kind of come into mainstream Russia. So the focus today I with costumes in Russia is more on the scary side rather than the fun side like in Japan. So a lot of scary makeup and, and costumes and trying to be like the ghoul and like scare other people rather than to have a I guess a sexy envelope. You'd have a terrifying envelope.
Alexander Ballard 39:43
It's the student loan envelope.
Karolina 39:46
That's the most terrifying whatever.
So they have organized events for children but adults get to go to clubs and and pubs and such, which have their own Halloween programs. Usually decorate and have special scary menus and fire shows and costume contest. So very similar to I guess what adults do here in North America. Yeah. The Russian Russians do have a traditional holiday called call Jada. Oh, yeah, I probably mispronouncing that. So I apologize to all the Russians but a kolyada is similar to Halloween. It's a Jewish tradition that was practiced on the night of January 6, before orthodox Christmas. So the Russians are on a different calendar, so they celebrate their Christmas on January 6. So Jeremy, on January 5, people did not sleep. They usually went from home to home, sang carols and receive treats in return.