Halloween

Its always been my favorite holiday, just barely surpassing Thanksgiving and of course Hanukkah. The problem with Hanukkah though is that as I got older, our family gatherings grew sparse and I received less presents. This was usually due to a combination of maturity overtaking my seriously material desires (video games, comfy chairs, etc.) as well as my brother and I being in the house together less and less. I think last year we had to celebrate Hanukkah for one night a few days before the 8 days even began just so that my family could sit down together, light the candles, eat a wonderful feast and present our thoughtful gifts to one another. It's a splendid night but cut unfortunately short. Even this year I won't be home for any of the 8 days, though luckily my parents will be here to cook up some potato latkes and say a few prayers with me. And as for Thanksgiving, nothing can quite beat a massive turkey and mashed potato dinner with the whole family. Well, nothing except dressing up in a silly costume and parading around town threatening total strangers with tricks if they don't give you candy. Even as you get older, the shenanigans morph into something so much worse and gruesome than ghouls and goblins--slutty librarians and promiscuously dressed movie references getting drunk in the streets and in frat houses. Trust me when I say Halloween at college has really hit its limits. Needless to say, I've always loved Halloween, though for different reasons as the years passed along.

Sadly, this year I am spending all three of these holidays away from the national festivities, cooped up in the middle of Europe forced to celebrate alone. Okay, maybe it's not as bad as I'm making it out to be, but do believe me when I say that walking around downtown Prague dressed up as a character from the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou did not pan out as well as I'm sure it would have back home. Not a single person dressed up during the day for Halloween, not even people in my class! I accidentally overslept in the morning, so I threw on my costume that I pulled together the night before, ran to my tram, scurried to my school from the stop, bust into the classroom only to find that not only was I the last to arrive, everyone else decided they would only dress up at night. So I spent the entire day walking around in my completely absurd costume, complete with props made out of cardboard and socks tied around my leg to look like a gun strap. I actually rather enjoyed it though; it's not everyday that you get to dress up as your favorite movie character and walk around Prague literally all day. I may have looked ridiculous to everyone else going about their typical Thursday, but that only cheered me up on the inside more.

Czechs don't celebrate Halloween at all like we do in America, not just in tradition but in date as well. They celebrate on November 2nd, I later found out, a day called the Commemoration of All the Departed. It's a somber day in which people celebrate the lives of deceased relatives, making trips to their final resting place and pay some sort of tribute. There is no candy, no costumes, and certainly no slutty variations of common-place animals and occupations. Still, both our Halloween and this day are derived from the same Celtic holiday which was a pagan harvest festival. Celtics associated winter with human death, and on October 31st, they said a final goodbye to the bright days of the year and welcomed the beginning of winter, thus blurring the line between the physical and spirit worlds. I think the most interesting thing about this is that Czechs also celebrate the beginning of summer ( this was back when Celtics celebrated only two seasons--winter and summer). On March 31st, which is the last day of winter and the gateway into a successful year of harvest, they celebrate a day called the Burning of the Witches. Now this is a holiday I want to spend in Central Europe. According to my roommate Jakub, everyone dresses up in costumes, builds massive fires around the city, drink heavily as townsfolk help feed the fire and watch as the world's metaphorical witches burn to a crisp. Well, now it's metaphorical...

Luckily on Halloween night some of the Czech buddies knew of a costume party in a club on a college campus. We had no idea where they were leading us, but after two trams and a short walk, we found ourselves walking through a bleak college campus surrounded by dorms and Czech students blatantly drinking in the parking lots. They led us to an inconspicuous club in the basement of one of these dorms, which had a free entry for anyone in costume. My hopes for that night were low, from the morning all the way until the moment I turned into the club from the dank stairwell leading to the main door. To my surprise, it was actually super cool, as everything was decorated in fake spider webs, carved pumpkins, orange and red lights, and they even "spooky" punch. I was so worried that I would have to celebrate Halloween at some random bar with no holiday spirit, but I ended up getting the cheerful costume party that I craved. Everyone there was a Czech student, but they still wore costumes and seemed totally in tune with the spirit of our pagan harvest holiday. I didn't eat any candy, though I realize I probably grew out of that aspect of Halloween years ago. I enjoyed my Halloween, even without the all-day holiday cheer and massive frat party. It's all part of the experience though, right?