Yesterday was an interesting day. I went with my friend Andrea to a daycare where she volunteers to help put on a Halloween party. It’s sponsored by the “Hogar de Cristo” (Home of Christ) for underprivilaged families. The kids were were so sweet but it was distressing to me to realize that I’m beginning to be able to read Chile’s social stratum in their faces. The natives here, Mapuches, are discriminated against economically and socially. A common expression is “cara de indio” or “Indian face” and is always used negatively. Angela once told me that one of the gringos that lives in our building is very handsome because it’s clear he’s not Mapuche. The society is saturated with racism, not only against Mapuche but also Peruvians and Bolivians, and everybody knows it.
Anyway, it made me sad to see these little kids and recognize their faces from the faces of dirty, unkempt people I’ve seen begging in the streets. Andrea said that she went to the flea market once and saw a man selling cardboard and one of the daycare kids was with him.
She made cookies and bought some cheap masks from Jumbo and a few bags of candy and we helped her put on a little Halloween party. The kids LOVED it. We played “Pin the Tail on the Cat”, made lollipop ghosts and colored faces in on some pictures of pumpkins then had a costume parade down to the plaza. It was a great time.
When I got home, I wished the concierge, Luis, a happy Halloween and he was like “We don’t celebrate that here because it’s best described as a pagan holiday…and as I’m a Catholic……..” So, I had to smile when I got this in my email yesterday…
Today is Halloween, one of the oldest holidays in the Western European tradition.
Today, 70 percent of American households will open their doors and offer candy to strangers, most of them children, 50 percent of Americans will take photographs of family or friends in costume, and the nation as a whole will spend more than 6 billion dollars. In terms of dollars spent, it is the second most popular holiday of the year in this country, after Christmas.
For the Celtic people of northeastern Europe, November 1st was New Year’s Day and October 31 was the last night of the year. Celts believed it was the night that spirits, ghosts, faeries, and goblins freely walked the earth. It was Pope Gregory III in the eighth century A.D. who tried to turn Halloween into a Christian holiday. Christians had been celebrating All Saints Day on May 13. Pope Gregory III decided to move the holiday to November 1st, to divert Northern Europeans from celebrating an old pagan ritual. Instead of providing food and drink to the spirits,Christians were encouraged to provide food and drink to the poor. And instead of dressing up like animals and ghosts, Christians were encouraged to dress up like their favorite saints.
So, that was my Halloween. I saw maybe 5 little kids trick or treating last night and our doorbell got buzzed twice but we didn’t have anything, so we didn’t answer it. And today is a holiday, so no class and all the Catholics are required to go to mass. I’m at home studying and hating it because the weather is superlative.
