Despite the attempts to tart it up, Halloween has become a rather dreary and cheerless occasion. It used to be celebrated primarily by children, with a great emphasis placed upon hazel nuts, apples and other native produce.
It was originally a sort of harvest festival, the old pre-Christian feast of Samhan, marking the end of the autumn and signalling the approach of winter. The obvious signs of nature dying all around prompted ideas of human mortality and associated ideas of spirits, ghosts and the hereafter.
With the coming of Christianity the New Order shifted the emphasis of the occasion to a season for remembering the dead and praying for the resting of their souls. But, as with Christmas, the old aspects of the feast never really went away; some people would say that they are regaining the ascendancy.
This idea of sprites being abroad led in times past to various pranks being conducted in the countryside when most of the people in Ireland were rural dwellers. Some of these pranks were harmless, others less so. Chimneys would be stuffed with bags, gates would be removed, or farm animals let out of their byres or stables. All good fun. With the move to the towns and cities, some of these practices were retained, and a certain amount of 'divilment' became a part of the proceedings.
In former days, it was only children who dressed up in old duds and wore false-faces – no fancy masks then – to knock the doors of their neighbourhs in the hope of being given a few coppers by the folks within. In recent times a great industry has grown up to provide adults with bizarre disguises and various eldritch fittings so that they will be appropriately attired to attend the many special Halloween-themed functions promoted by pubs and discos. It is a great time for transvestites to parade the streets without comment. It is also an opportunity for people who have been barred from pubs to seek an amnesty by going back in a mask. The publicans are often happy to have them back, and so the situation is resolved without loss of face, as it were.
The high marketing profile which Halloween has attained in recent years has prompted various churchmen to warn about the business getting out of hand. It is not simply the excesses of over-indulgence in alcopops that causes concern, but a fear that the occasion can verge upon the sinister, and acquire occult undertones. Other custodians of moral order express concern that grave matters, as it were, are being trivialised. Halloween has become big business, and no sooner have the shelves and shop windows been cleared of back-to-school stuff than they are filled with witches' hats, broomsticks and plastic battle-axes. It has become a dry run for the Christmas rush, and the Yuletide displays will shortly be taking over, where they have not already done so.
In Ireland, the proximity of Guy Fawkes night, celebrated in England on November 5, has meant that the Halloween festivities here are accompanied by salvoes of fireworks. The fireworks of today are a far cry from the penny squibs of yesteryear: they are veritable hand-grenades, frequently imported from China and, although illegal, seem to be plentiful, to judge from the numbers of explosions that punctuate the tranquillity of the autumn evenings. The Irish Minister for Justice has warned motorists in the Republic that any car discovered to contain fireworks from the North runs the risk of having the vehicle confiscated. This gives a new twist to the phrase "old banger". It does suggest that the Gardaí have the situation under control within their own jurisdiction, and proper order too.
These dangerous fireworks cause injury to people, and damage to property, apart from causing anxiety to elderly citizens, and panic to pets such as dogs and cats. They have nothing to do with harmless amusment or innocent merriment. The cops make the odd swoop, but they cannot be expected to seize all of the illegal fireworks which find their way here. This indiscriminate use of dangerous fireworks is another illustration of the thoughtlessness of so many people today who are determined to do their own thing, regardless of the consequences for others.
In evidence the industrial tribunal heard that the appellant was seeking recompense for what he alleged was an unfair dismissal. He had been employed as a porter at a local hotel, and his former employers claimed that his negligence had resulted in the loss of various bags, valises and suitcases, the property of patrons of the hotel. The thrust of his employers' case against him was that he was sleeping on the job, the consequence, no doubt, of his holding down another job which kept him up nights, and thus not getting enough proper sleep. His case was that it was necessary for him to have another job, in order to make ends meet. "A man" said the presiding chairman, "With bags under his eyes."
The prisons in Britain are full to bursting point, and the Home Office is contemplating using ships as centres of incarceration, as was the case in the days of Dickens. But why stop at that? They could always have the prisoners row the vessels on the high seas as in the old galleys. It would cut down on the amount of pollution caused by aeroplanes.
The recently published book by television personality Clive James has it that Conor Cruise O'Brien has passed on. The book is entitled 'Unreliable Memoirs'.
Australian newspapers have reported the story of a prisoner in a Sydney jail who employed laxatives to enable him to lose two stones so as to be slim enough to slip through the bars of the prison gate. Local police commented that he had been "on the run for three days".
From Monday's 'Weakest Link' on BBC 2.
Q. Complete the title of the Hemingway novel about a Cuban fisherman. 'The old man and the ....?'
A. Whale.
Q. What is the name of the castle, east of Belfast, which gives its name to Northern Ireland's Parliament?
A. Limerick.
Bill Clinton has told the people of Chicago that he wanted to thank them for voting for him "twice".
Presumably he meant voting for him on two occasions.
