At Zona Refrescante restaurant in Cuenca, Ecuador,
every afternoon on Thursday, Ecuadorians meet with native English speakers to
practice speaking English. It´s fun, and it´s a way for people from both
cultures to inquire about strange customs they don´t understand.
This bright middle school age student had a question for me this past Thursday about Halloween. I pause to interject. This girl of about 14 years never lived in any English speaking country. She learned what she knows not only because eight hours of English per week is a requirement at her school, but also because as she explained, English is her favorite subject! She speaks it well and has decently good pronunciation, and she impressed me.
But all that above about her is beside the point.
This girl, an obviously curious expression on her face,
was asking me to explain Halloween. I tried but felt flabbergasted. I didn´t have an answer satisfactory to me.
Halloween as it´s known in North America doesn´t exist
in Ecuador. The custom most akin to Halloween in Ecuador is called the day of the dead, I´d say, but this tradition is so different from Halloween that in
fact the connection is most imprecise. Ecuadorians visit the remains of lost
loved ones at their tombs in graveyards on the day of the dead. They place
flowers and cards with messages on the tombstones, and eat food and drink a
special drink called colada morada. It´s a time to pray for the dead and a time
to communicate with the dead.
This to me is its, granted, unsteady similarity
to Halloween. But take a look at one of the most popular Halloween costumes---the
costume of a skeleton. Somehow in some way Halloween has something to do with
death. And death is scary. Look at the costumes kids wear on Halloween--- ghosts,
goblins, monsters, witches, pirates and devils---all scary, all evocative of
frightening manifestations that would scare you to death if not make believe.
So what IS the point of Halloween? Is it just to have fun going around to
houses in the neighborhood carrying a bag to collect candy? Get real--- that´s the biggest part of the
point. But I think Halloween has a deeper meaning, which I wouldn´t be thinking
about if it hadn´t been for that Ecuadorian girl´s question.
In my mind the Halloween costume represents the dark
side of human nature. It´s the side we ordinarily hide but that we bring out
into the open in pantomime on Halloween. We proclaim there is this evil side to
us that is like a monster or a demon. We say yes on Halloween, yes we are part
bad and yes this part of us exists.
The beauty about Halloween as every kid in North
America will attest is the collection of big bags of candy. Maybe this is
symbolic as well. Is this a representation that evil spirits can be bought off?
After all, the ghosts and goblins leave
the house once their bags get filled with candy.