One origin of Halloween is associated with an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain which was held annually on Oct. 31. The Celts celebrated Nov. 1 as their new year because it marked the end of the summer and harvest season and beginning of the dark, cold winter season they associated with death. They believed that the boundaries of the worlds of the living and dead became blurred on the night before, and the ghosts of the dead were able to come back to earth, not only destroying crops and causing mischief but also making it easier for Celtic priests to predict the future.
For this reason, Oct. 31 became known as Halloween or All Hallow’s Eve. On this day they built bonfires where people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the spirits. They dressed in “costumes” made of animal skins and heads to mimic bad spirits in an attempt to deter them and also tried to predict each other’s future. At the end of the night, the Celts would relight their home hearth with fire from the bonfire because they believed it would protect them during the winter months.
Nowadays, Halloween is simply celebrated by carving pumpkins, and going trick-ortreating dressed in costumes varying from witches and ghosts to superheroes and princesses.
The station honored this tradition by having a children’s Halloween party coordinated by Marine Corps Community Services along with haunted houses, fall festivals and two hours of trick-or-treating. The station also shared the festivities with the locals by allowing service members to sponsor Japanese guests who normally would not celebrate the holiday.
Marine Wing Support Squadron 171 got in the spirit of Halloween by spending 3 days putting together what was declared “the best haunted house ever on the air station” by several attendees. It took 42 Marines to put it together and approximately 485 people attended.
“I was not expecting it to be scary, but after I went through it, there were times I jumped because I was scared,” said Cpl. Raul Diaz, an outbound/inbound traffic management office clerk here.
The Matthew C. Perry Elementary School and Child Development Center each held a fall festival in celebration of the holiday where children played games to win prizes and candy Oct. 16 and Oct. 30 respectively.
Halloween isn’t just for older children, said Yolanda Perez, a caregiver for the 0- to 6-month-old children at the CDC during their fall festival. Her classroom did a lot of artwork even though they’re babies, she said.
“The other older classrooms think that they can do better (than us), but uh-uh. We did good. For them just to be babies, we did a lot of artwork,” said Perez.
From 1-4 p.m. Saturday, community members and their sponsored Japanese guests were invited to the IronWorks Gym for the Marine Corps Community Services children’s Halloween party. Attendees enjoyed music, games, food and candy, including a 6-foot Frankenstein cake, bounce houses, a performance by the M.C. Perry High School cheerleaders and a costume contest.
“I’m hoping to get a lot of candy this way,” said Carley Massengale, a 9-year-old 3rd grader at the Matthew C. Perry School, when asked about her costume.
Massengale and her father were dressed as homeless people. Her father carried a sign that read “Will work for candy,” and her sign read “Must support pa.” They sat in the middle of the gym “begging” for candy and later could be found doing the same in the housing areas as other children ran door to door collecting their candy.
After 7 p.m., trick or treating was completed and the streets grew more and more silent with every passing moment.
As Steve Almond, a journalist, commentator and fiction writer, once said, “Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.”