POST by LIZ: Trick or Treat

With the end of October looming, something rather unusual is taking place in the shops here – we are seeing the malls decked with spider webs and jack-o-lanterns; the stores are stocking up on Halloween items. 

“Unusual?” I hear many question.  Perhaps not for the Western world, but for here – YES!  With the strong catholic foundation, many Nicaraguans view Halloween (as do many British Christians) as: E V I L… and as a country, have not promoted such a festival.

I remember being 12 years old, sitting at the top-of-the-stairs gazing out the window as ghosts, zombies, fairies and witches happily walked below in full swing of their “trick or treat-ing”. 

But their disguises did not fool me.  I identified many of these walking horrors as my humble class mates from school. 

Yet, for us Townsends, the 31^st October was lock-down night.  There were no candies to be given or received -  although, at times my brother would grab an egg or two, and practice his cricket pitch, from the top-stairs´ window, using the goodie-bag-holding-passers as unsuspecting ball targets.

I don´t ever recall feeling mad at my parents in their decision to forbid us to participate in these Halloween activities.  I wanted God in my life and good things, so it made sense not to celebrate an event that promoted themes of death, horror and spiritual darkness. 

I would wonder why anyone would want to celebrate a night that encourages many people to dress as evil and create evil towards others. (I would frown as my school friends´ bragged of how many “shit bombs” they'd left burning on front porches, or how many firecrackers they'd managed to shove through letter boxes of the vulnerable elderly (remember that British letter boxes go straight into the house), or how their fingers would hurt after tying so many crackers to cats´ tails).

The stories that buzzed around during October about children having their throats slit due to the placement of razor blades inside candies given out, were enough to convince me not to crave the sweets given.  And on the rare occasions that we did venture out on this celebrated night, was enough to scare me from ever wanting to roam the streets on the eve of all saints day. 

I remember one October 31^st walking briskly through the dark, dodging out-of-control fireworks that whizzed and banged in the streets and watching freaked-out cats run past (some unable to  free themselves of the tied fire crackers).  

So my parents' decision wasn´t such a big deal to me, although I can´t answer for my siblings.  We only had to wait several more days to get our sugar fix, as we would celebrate, with fireworks and candy, the famous Guy Fawkes Night (which coincidentally also celebrates death, without compassion for cats!).

As the years passed, my folks (as did many other Christians) started seeing Halloween as an opportunity to share the gospel with our community.  My parents hosted “Hallelujah Nights” using the local church as a vessel for connecting with the community: claiming back the night for wholesome activity, and providing a God focused dwelling as an alternative which put Jesus in the centre. 

These events were AWESOME!  My creative mother would organise her famous crazy – and often very messy – games, my dad would use his puppets to entertain the kids with gospel messages and there were bags and bags and bags of candy to be dished out.   But it was ALWAYS Hallelujah night and never Halloween!

So you can image the shock to my system when Jed and I moved to Mexico, only to be invited by our conservative Christian Missionary American friends to a Halloween party!   (They didn´t even try to disguise the name!)

Our American buddies (who are so adamant that drinking alcohol is a sin, which most of us European Christian´s think is utterly bizarre) saw no problem in celebrating this night I knew to be promoting evil.  I felt their nudges as they laughed at some Mexican protesters positioned at the traffic lights bashing Halloween! 

But I was torn.

My upbringing had me siding with the Mexicans, who were now madly waving their banners which proclaimed Halloween as being evil and not good, at our passing bus. Yet my two years in the US opened my eyes to how my Puritan-founded friends viewed the night: as a fun family night to get together, get creative with cute costumes, and a chance to try new pumpkin recipes.  YES! Of course there is spider web and carved pumpkin décor, but this is all viewed as a bit of fun!  While some embrace the horror themes associated with Halloween, others do not.      

As the bus passed, my US expat friends started talking about how strange it was that the Latino Christians would firmly reject Halloween and be protesting against their party plans, yet have no problem celebrating the Day of the Dead.

Curious to know more, I asked what that event was. I found out that in Latin America, families gather together in grave yards and take food (mostly a special type of bread) to honor their loved ones who have since departed from this world.

I thought this day to be rather family promoting and sentimental, but one of the Halloween party organisers expressed how spiritually dark this celebration can be, how it promotes death and encourages communication with dead people. (I quietly struggled with her arguments of why it was okay for people to celebrate Halloween, yet not okay for people to celebrate the Day of the Dead).

It was before Mexico and during our time living in the States, that Jed and I were forced to discuss the issue of Halloween. It´s strange to think we had been married four years before we conversed regarding the topic. Although Halloween events do exist in Australia, it´s not really a big deal like it is in the UK or US.

We had never had a knock at the door with the phrase “Trick or Treat?” that followed, and we had never celebrated October 31^st as a “Halloween” or “Hallelujah” night.  So we really had no reason to ever discuss Halloween before we lived in the US.  

Returning to my NY home, after plowing through the aisles and aisles of Halloween merchandise in Walmart, I was shocked to find my husband madly throwing candy to the neighbourhood kids shouting out “Happy Halloween”. 

While I whispered (I didn´t want to offend my American neighbours) my verbal attacks at him for participating in evil works, he continued to throw the hard lollies to passing bunnies, spidermen and fairies.  It was at this point that we talked about cultural differences with regards to this celebrated day. I had two options: one - to hold to my cultural and spiritual beliefs and upbringing and put a stop to the human piñata, or two – to put my own beliefs aside and join in on the fun.  

“Oh, What the heck,” I thought and joined in with dishing out the candy and hoped my parents would never hear of what I had done! 

Here, the majority of Christian Nicaraguans share the same view as the majority of the Christian Mexicans do with regards to Halloween. Many US Americans take furlough opportunities to horde back Halloween decorations etc as they know too well that obtaining these items here can be a task and a half. 

In the two years we have lived here, I have seen a difference in the items available in the shops that satisfy Westerner demands.  The stores are catching on that there is a “hot-market” they can tap into.  Suppliers are realising that this flush “market” is not solely seeking out ´Halloween´ goodies, and are slowly increasing the supply of items we Westerners believe should be readily available.  

Many of the Christian Nicaraguans view pagan festivities as just that: Pagan. They reject Halloween and any symbols related to Halloween, they believe that drinking is a sin, they freak out when foreigners give “bunny-ears” to someone else while taking a photo, they disapprove strongly of symbols such as the “ban the bomb” or the “ying and yang”.  They believe the Christmas tree is evil (and use scripture to promote their beliefs), and tend to disapprove of Christmas decorations in general.   (Although, ironically you can´t drive around Managua and miss the gaudy Christmas trees that are displayed on almost every rotunda! – because, naturally, having socialist President, Daniel Orgeta, means it IS Christmas all year round!).

To date: I have visited 27 countries and I have lived in five of them, so Halloween is not the only topic I´ve had to wrestle with my once-set-rules-and-norms. I cherish Jonathan Swift´s satire, Gulliver´s Travels, which targets mindsets and deep cultural beliefs.  It exposes how strong culture and tradition are to a group of humans and the effects they have on an individual.  It causes readers to ponder their world, logic and belief system.  It attacks the imperialist mindset and encourages people to view differences as “different” and not “wrong” merely because it doesn´t match up to one's own beliefs.  

I´m not really sure what culture I fit into these days!  I´m still very British in many of my ways, yet the Australian, North and Central American living experiences and my travels to four of the world´s continents, have also had an impact on my life.  I have embraced many of the Australian, North American, Central American, European, and Asian norms as my own. Yet, for some reason, I still struggle with cultural differences. 

I have noticed how often cultural traditions and norms deeply impact spiritual mindsets and my daily prayer springs off of a Romans´ scripture:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, THEN you will be able to test and approve what God´s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.”