November 1st used to be New Years Day for the Celts of old, and October 31st (before it was usurped by the Church) was thought to be the day when spirits and other goblins freely roamed the world. It was the underpinning of Halloween. A pope in the eighth century made October 31st into a celebration of the saints, mostly to divert people away from celebrating an old non-Christian celebration.
Halloween up here has got to be one of the more unique celebrations, and I know I’ve written about it before but it bears repeating. First of all, it isn’t always celebrated on October 31st. If, for instance, it falls on a Sunday they’ll move it to the Friday or Saturday. Trick or Treating is scheduled, usually for two hours between 5:00 and 7:00, no trick or treating before or after, so it is easy to plan around. Many kids are ferried around on ATV’s, and quite often you’ll see a small child in costume in his mother’s amautiq
I was thrilled that Travis finally went trick or treating this year (Spiderman of course), as up until this point he’s always been too frightened of the costumed kids. Two nights ago I carved a Jack O’ Lantern and he wouldn’t go into the kitchen because it was there. Last night he proudly announced that he was no longer scared of the pumpkin and to prove it went up and stuck his hand in its mouth. Of course the candy has proved to be a powerful motivator and he was still vibrating when I put him to bed last night.
After trick or treating ends there is a costume contest at the gym. Now while many of the kids have traditional costumes,
the adults have the most fanciful creations you can imagine. They aren’t designed to be any specific character, no superheros or such, but instead are created with what ever materials are at hand. They’re designed to really disguise the wearer (part of the attraction is to try and figure out who is who) so usually the head is completely covered. As I wrote before the basic theme is to cover your head, stuff things in your legs and attach something to your ass.
Take a look at this fellow, who was the winner. He is carrying a harpoon and a kakivak (fish spear). He’s got part of a muskox skull on his head, three masks on his costume, a fox skin stretcher on his back, caribou antlers and other accoutrements on him.
Here are some of the other adults that took part.
And not all the kids dress up as ghosts and goblins. Here are two that follow the adult theme of costumes.
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Great photos. It’s neat to see how people celebrate events in different communities. Looks like everyone was getting into the spirit of the occasion.
Just catching up on blog reading. I thought about you on Halloween and hoped you would post pictures of this year’s costumes! 🙂