Dear Editor,
I am surprised that numerous people have written negative things about us celebrating Halloween without looking it up on the internet. Some Guyanese believe that this is only a US phenomenon and whilst it is true that the Americans have built on the traditions of Halloween and it is now their biggest celebration after Christmas, they did not start it.
It was started nearly 2000 years ago by the ancient Celts with their festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). Two thousand years ago the Celts lived in the area that is now Ireland, Britain and northern France; they celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the New Year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31, they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the other-worldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.
So the origins of this practice on November 1, which is now called Halloween, has nothing to do with Witches, Christianity and Salem USA; it is much, much older and is fundamentally not based on Christian religious beliefs or doctrine.
It is certain that since we do not have winter here in Guyana, it is somewhat misplaced as a preparation for the long hard winter, but we have long hard other things to compensate for that, blackouts for example. However, the children and even the adults enjoy it and it creates some action for the hard-pressed business community, so where is the harm in it?
Yours faithfully,
Tony Vieira
No harm at all, buddy.
Same as ho harm in celebrating Unkulunkulu’s birthday either.
YIPEE!
Harm?? is Mashramani on the American calender? Is Pagwah celerated nation wide in the U.S and is Diwali and national holiday there??? Is Tony Virea…………..mad??
Hey Tony, go ahead and celebrate Thanksgiving, St. Patrick’s day, Jewish passover, St. Jean-Baptiste Day, Columbus Day, Veterans day and every other holiday that other people celebrate which has nothing to do with Guyanese. We are so good at copycatting, lets go out full scale on this one Tony. We have our identity as a people, and we want to maintain it, what we celebrate is based on our history if you don’t realise. Thanks for your history of Halloween but we really don’t need to dress our children up as witches and vampires so they can beg strangers for candies.
I wish i had the time today to explain some things ..but know this..that what you do now prepares you for what your future would be, even as what you eat today determines your health tomorrow…if we want to be healthy we eat healthy, if we are preparing for heaven we start doing God’s will now, if we are preparing for hell we will do Satan’s will today, the bible in 2 Cor 4 v 3 & 4 says , but if our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light…..of Christ shine upon them…
this is not a condemnation, it is a call to search for truth in the bible. Halloween does not glorify God, and as such it is not pleasing to Him for we must do EVERY THING to the glory of God. Theree is a solution to being lost, for my people perish for lack of knowledge….in all they getting Solomaon says, get understanding.
can’t use the bible to disprove halloweeeeeeeeeeeeen. Solo-who-mon? O the guy with 1000 wives. Eh? Wisdom?
Mr.Tony Vieria – Have you looked at the world today , Whats wrong with anything these days. It seems to be our coments on everything.
Yes, it was started by the celts,and it had it’s meaning then, but today the meaning is different,and i oppose it to being celebrated in guyana,not everything americans do guyanese have to do too.
This is the same spirit which motivated Cain..he did not see what harm there was in offering to God the fruit of the ground when God wanted a animal offiering…
why god want a animal? he not a veggie? he no eat ital? he no rastaman.
Halloween started with the Celts, and it was called, Sam Heins day, it represented the day when the dead returned to visit the living, before this day arrived, the locals would harvest their crops and move their livestock closer to their homes, it was considered a time of evil. We can see today, just as long ago, the use of pumpkins made to look like witches, and everything about halloween represents the dark and supernatural side of life. We do not need that, visit some old people in Berbice, and they will tell you some jumbi stories that would make you scared even under the three o’ clock sun. As other bloggers have manifested, we have our own traditions, we have a halloween every day when someone comes face to face with a bandit who not only scares the hell out of him, but also relieves him of property or life, or both. Guyana does not need halloween!
MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO
Tony, I have always admired you, I subscribed to have your commentaries sent to my e-mail address. I will however express my disappointment in you this time. With the current psyche of the average Guyanese do you think it would be wise to give people a justifiable reason to put on masks & go from house to house? Has the current administration given you the sense of security that such an activity would be beneficial to Guyanese? Does the symbolism of halloween promise to bear positive dividends for our society? Is there any reason why with all the ghoul etc in our society as it is we should now add more? Come on Tony, you could do better than that. HALLOWEEN IS NOT SOMETHING WE IN GUYANA NEED, NOT NOW, NOT EVER!!!
No harm in celebrating at all. At this rate of holidaying Guyana might end up with a 48 week year.
its the truth guyanaese people see guyanese do and its makes me sick
Take a bottle of aspirins whenever you feel sick. You will always be sick then with Guyanese being that way.