Halloween and importing cultural signs

Amazing! Even Italy is in the act now for Halloween. Of course, there is a lot of speculation as to the meaning of all this. Is it about the dead? about the ghosts? a children's holiday? At breakfast this morning there was a big philosophical discussion about this new import. And in the end I believe that the Italians and the rest of Europe has just picked up from American media: movies, television, Second Life… all the contact with the USA.

Of course I think of Halloween as a fun time in the family -- it was in my family when we were children. And I just got photos from my friend Rick Glass whose little daughter is aware of Halloween for the first time as she helped him pick out a pumpkin to bring home. Huge pumpkins carved, bright costumes and face paint and masks, spicy apple punch and pumpkin or pecan pie, and candy… lots of candy: these are all the elements of a child's Halloween in the USA.

Of course lately there are other elements that come to the fore. Instead of just the costumes, there are the horror tales. It seemed to me that the witches and black cats were things to make fun of during my childhood… but now there are such intense horror stories and films that the holiday takes on a frightening side… or a naughty side… or a disruptive side.

On the other hand, when I used to talk about Halloween with my friends in Canada, they always remembered it as a day of mischief. It could be that my parents tried to celebrate the day in a different way from all of that. After all, I do remember stories of how when I was a toddler I had been terrified by the monsters that came to the door -- monsters who were 10 year-olds in costume. I coined my first word that Halloween: I called them "gungs". The sound expressed my horror and the ugliness of them all. I also used to call the characters in the Sunday comics "gungs", or so I am told. I don't think the word made it into the lexicon.

Now Europe and Italy itself is taking on the celebration of Halloween. It all makes me wonder. What is the point of this celebration in Italy? There is no Celtic Culture to hark back to… and I doubt really that Halloween has such profound, mystical roots. I have heard too many stories from Washington Irving to think that its roots are beyond the sassy yankee colonies… But even if it is, how does this fit in with Italy's culture? There is already a very strong tradition of the day of the dead, of All Saints. Ghosts and goblins are not part of the tradition, and who has ever seen a pumpkin here? Zucchini, fine, but pumpkins? Unfortunately, you cannot carve out a zucchini and put a candle inside it, and even if you did, it would not look all that ghostly.

And what would you call a zucchini lantern? "Zaccaria Zucchinetti"? Hmm! That sound good!

No, it is a commercial day, a reason for nighttime parties, a good time on a Friday night. It will probably remain at this level.

What it does show is that Italy is changing and taking on more foreign customs without much hesitation. Well, I think it has been like this in Italy forever (with perhaps the exception of the Fascist era). So many English words have become Italianized and made part of the language. Take the word "blog", for instance.

One other element that is much stronger now is Recycling! WOOOOO! About time! I have been so encouraged to see it! Along every corridor of the university there are recycle bins for paper. When I was here on sabbatical there were bins on the street, but it took a lot of effort to bag the paper and walk out on to the avenue… a couple of blocks walk actually. Even so, I did that back in 2005. In 1990 there was no such service. But now, there is recycling within the university itself, with friendly little bins that invite participation. Alleluia! This is a great improvement.

So it is a happy, recycling Halloween that I celebrate this year under the Roman rain!