Happy Halloween!

The FilMasons family greets you Happy Halloween!

While not a traditionally Filipino or Australian holiday, it is "celebrated" in Europe and in Northern America on the night of 31 October.

In the Philippines it is followed by All Saints Day on 1st November and by All Souls Day on the 2nd of November. A tradition which Filipino-Australians have been trying to emulate. Try visiting cemeteries, of note is Pine Grove Memorial Park in Michinbury, NSW; wherein a lot of Filipinos are interred. You will see a Filipino traditonal "picnic in a memorial park", with friends and relatives reuniting and visiting their loved ones. Complete with picnic mats, chairs and sometimes full-blown tents. I kid you not!

But I am sure there will be a Mass held this coming Saturday, as is traditionally held for the past years. At least, a prayer or two would give this pagan festival a Christian flavour. It also jibes with our culture of reverence for the dead, as was most likely passed onto us by our Chinese ancestors.

With the advent of American culture, this innocous festival is now being celebrated with that famous trick or treat as seen in American films. Even in my neighbourhood of Woodcroft, you will encounter Aussie kids in ghoulish costumes going house to house asking for "death" -- lollies. I try to stock up on lollies during this period, as I do not want to be embarassed by kids -- small cute kids in Halloween costumes with their trick or treat bags. At one Halloween, with no lollies in the house I tried giving apples and oranges just to be stared at. I think they were a bit dissapointed.

According to Wikipedia, "Halloween originated from the Pagan festival Samhain, celebrated among the Celts of Ireland and Great Britain. Irish and Scottish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century.

"The Festival of Halloween is a celebration of the end of the fertile period of the Celtic Goddess Eiseria. It is said that when Eiseria reaches the end of her fertile cycle the worlds of the dead and the living interlap. This happens on October 31. Masks are worn to show respect for the Goddess Eiseria who, like most Celtic deities, does not wish to be seen with human eyes. The day also preceeds All saints day, which was at first the celebration of the start of a new cycle of fertility for the celtic Goddess Eiseria. Couples incapable of producing children thus tried their luck on All saints day."

I better go home early today and try trick or treat at home, I might get lucky!