Topic: What is Halloween, October 31?

[Nichi]

Until Michael and Julie both mentioned they had no idea what Halloween was, I presumed that it was celebrated all over. Turns out it isn't, so I thought I'd give a short synopsis.

It's really an old Druid/pagan holiday, Samhain (pronounced Sow-een). The day when the veil is lifted between the worlds of the dead and the living. (And other ethereal phenomena.) Interestingly, Mexican and South American cultures celebrate it as "The Day of the Dead", about 5 or 6 days later.

The decorations are autumn-festival based, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere, (a festival which stretches into the end of November), with the addition of jack-o-lanterns (pumpkins carved up into spooky faces).  People put votives inside the jack-o-lanterns at night.

In the US, and I believe in the UK as well (I'll have to check on that), the custom is to dress up as someone/thing else. The idea is that the "devil" won't find you because you are masquerading as someone else, heheh.

The adults have costume parties, and the kids dress up and go "Trick-or-Treating" from door-to-door, asking for candy. If the kids don't get their candy, they then perform "tricks" upon the householder.  Unfortunately, this leads to some vandalism -- like toilet-papering the yard, smashing pumpkins, throwing eggs, etc.

Halloween took a dark turn about 20-30 years ago here, with some adults handing out poisoned treats, so we stopped being available for the handouts, not wanting to get drawn into that.

Some years I get the "spooky" spirit, though, and join in the fun!

[Nichi]

Trick-or-Treat-ing

[Nichi]

Spooky! 

[Nichi]

[Nichi]

Samhain. All Hallows. All Hallow's Eve. Hallow E'en. Halloween. The most magical night of the year. Exactly opposite Beltane on the wheel of the year, Halloween is Beltane's dark twin. A night of glowing jack-o-lanterns, bobbing for apples, tricks or treats, and dressing in costume. A night of ghost stories and seances, tarot card readings and scrying with mirrors. A night of power, when the veil that separates our world from the Otherworld is at its thinnest. A 'spirit night', as they say in Wales.

All Hallow's Eve is the eve of AllHallow's Day (November 1st). And for once, even popular tradition remembers that the Eve is more important than the Day itself, the traditional celebration focusing on October 31st, beginning at sundown. And this seems only fitting for the great Celtic New Year's festival. Not that the holiday was Celtic only. In fact, it is startling how many ancient and unconnected cultures (the Egyptians and pre-Spanish Mexicans, for example) celebrated this as a festival of the dead. But the majority of our modern traditions can be traced to the British Isles.

The Celts called it Samhain, which means 'summer's end', according to their ancient two-fold division of the year, when summer ran from Beltane to Samhain and winter ran from Samhain to Beltane. (Some modern Covens echo this structure by letting the High Priest 'rule' the Coven beginning on Samhain, with rulership returned to the High Priestess at Beltane.) According to the later four-fold division of the year, Samhain is seen as 'autumn's end' and the beginning of winter. Samhain is pro- nounced (depending on where you're from) as 'sow-in' (in Ireland), or 'sow-een' (in Wales), or 'sav-en' (in Scotland), or (inevitably) 'sam-hane' (in the U.S., where we don't speak Gaelic).
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos036.htm

[Michael]

I did know it was supposed to have originated in the UK, but I don't think they go in for the same level of celebration as the US does. Do you know why it became such a big deal in the US?

We don't traditionally have it here, but I think some are trying to do it, much like they are trying to bring in Valentine's Day, which also is not traditional in Aust.

[Nichi]

I did know it was supposed to have originated in the UK, but I don't think they go in for the same level of celebration as the US does. Do you know why it became such a big deal in the US?

I'd have to do some research there. If it's bigger in the US, I'd look at the candy industry as the big benefit-ors.

Actually, it's a surprise that it continues to be big. There was some movement by the Christian Right to downplay it, especially as folks became more educated about its roots. I once had a "born-again" coworker who would take down all the Halloween witches from the decorations in the lobby and hallways, grumbling how she hated them, for example.

We don't traditionally have it here, but I think some are trying to do it, much like they are trying to bring in Valentine's Day, which also is not traditional in Aust.

Again, I go back to this query in my mind, as with "Christmas" being a Winter Solstice holiday: is Halloween intimately/inextricably tied in with autumn?  If so, t'would be no wonder that it wouldn't take off in Australia.

[Nichi]

Michael, what sort of autumn festivals/celebrations do you all have there?

[Michael]

We don't have any seasonal celebrations, off the top of my head.
It is a pity really - I think Australia is impoverished when it comes to celebrations. We just had one today though - tha Melbourne Cup ("the horse race that stops the nation"). It's a big deal here.

[Nichi]

That really is a pity!

[Jahn]

Halloween is a concept in Sweden too, since the middle 1990's.

Our kids went around in the village then, and last year we had a visit of a group of kids on Halloween that we gave candy. I never found out what their trick would be. Pumpkins is used here and there to increase the feeling of the holiday.

This year i bought tons of candy, but no kids knocked on the door - so what to do with all the candy?
I will eat it, but it will take months before it is gone 

[Michael]

This year the trick in Sweden was a massive hacking coup.

[Jahn]

This year the trick in Sweden was a massive hacking coup.

Que!?

[Michael]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/27/sweden-hacking-twitter-hijack
http://www.securitynewsdaily.com/swedish-data-breach-1281/

[Jahn]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/27/sweden-hacking-twitter-hijack
http://www.securitynewsdaily.com/swedish-data-breach-1281/

Aha, he he!

Well, it was a two dimensioned story at the least.
The (24 year old) politician that got his facebook account hi-jacked, he has drug and alcohol problem and was at the time for the hi-jacking behind close bars. Treated for his behaviour problems. With no access to a computer with Internet access it was easy for all to determine that what "He" wrote on his blogg wasn't his words.

Then someone leaked that the account of the freaked out politician was only one of 200 000 accounts that had been collected and hacked from a couple of sites. The hacker that made the collection, released the whole batch of encrypted passwords in a so called "hashcode" file. One do not directly get the password from that code and file - but you can start de-coding it. (Have a look below, and you can see that it is in many cases not that hard to get the real pw out from the code).

The hacker of the hashcode did not hack any accounts, he only dumped the file to other hackers in the Cyberspace to work with.

The problem is:
1) If you get a persons password on one place  - you can probably use it on another. It was only a couple of mundane sites that was hacked on passwords, but since people (like me) have a tendency to use their password on multiple sites - one can try that first password to get access to more accounts - like facebook in this case. Facebook had not been hacked. But The politician had the same pw on Facebook as in the haschcode from the first place.

2) People (not like me) use way too far simply passwords. We laughed a lot to the list of the top ten of most common password.

Most common used password at one site
Number   PASSWORD
1695       123456, 12345  or 123456789
1281       Hey, heyhey, or halloy (hej, hejhej or hejsan)
434         mom, yourmom  (mamma, dinmamma)
374            football  (fotboll)
311            censored
293            summer (sommar)
252            flower (blomma)