Babalugats
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- May 31, 2009
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October is an important month in our gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender calendar. This is GLBT History Month (www.glbthistorymonth.com), dedicated to re-discovering our past and celebrating our community’s icons October 11 was also “National Coming Out Day,” which we observed by taking part in the National Equality March and many local events. However, our community’s most popular and historic holiday doesn’t come until the end of this month. This holiday predates recorded history and captures the essence of sex and gender variance to a much greater degree than the activist holidays. Just open the pages of any gay paper during the first weeks of November and you will see what we were doing on October 31st. In the words of the lesbian poet and scholar Judy Grahn, Halloween is “the great gay holiday”.
I love Halloween. To me, October 31 is a special day and night, though I don’t go out as much as I used to. I certainly enjoy writing about it, and I try to produce a Halloween article every few years. Once thought to be a children’s holiday, Halloween (actually Hallowe’en, but I prefer to use the more common spelling) is almost as popular with adults. According to Nicholas Rogers, author of Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, “Halloween . . . has become a major party night for adults, arguably the most important after New Year’s Eve. . . . [T]he amount of money spent on Halloween has more than doubled in the last decade, making it the second retail bonanza after Christmas.”
Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is a corruption of All Hallows Eve, which is traditionally observed on the night before All Saints Day (All Hallows Day). Like other Christian holy days, Halloween was adapted from a pagan festival, in this case the Celtic feast of Samhain (pronounced sow-end). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Samhain “was the eve of the new [Celtic] year. . .and was the occasion for one of the ancient fire festivals when huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits.” On Samhain, the Celts believed, the spirit world and the mortal realm come into close contact and spirits can slip out of their domain to visit our world. Today, followers of the Craft or Wicca (witches) still observe Samhain as the greatest of eight seasonal sabats. Rich Wandel, an openly gay high priest of Wicca, told the authors of The Gay Almanac that “Samhain . . . is a time of connection to those who have gone before us and will return again. It is my favorite ritual, and is one we never let the students lead. We do it ourselves, because it is important, particularly in terms of the many friends that all of us in our communities have lost.”
Though Protestant reformers tried to suppress All Hallows Day observances as being both pagan and papist, Halloween emerged as a secular holiday during the 19th and 20th centuries. And while Halloween is enjoyed by everyone, “it has been the gay community,” Rogers tells us, “that has most flamboyantly exploited Halloween’s potential as a transgressive festival, as one that operates outside or on the margins of orthodox time, space, and hierarchy. Indeed, it is the gay community that has been arguably most responsible for Halloween’s adult rejuvenation.” What William Stewart, writing about Halloween in Cassell’s Queer Companion, called “the gay festival par excellence,” has been observed by queer people long before there were Pride Days or Coming Out Days; Southern Decadence or Wigstock; bear busts, circuit parties, leather runs, nudist gatherings or womyn’s music festivals. Long before there was Disney, Halloween was and is the original Gay Day.
I love Halloween. To me, October 31 is a special day and night, though I don’t go out as much as I used to. I certainly enjoy writing about it, and I try to produce a Halloween article every few years. Once thought to be a children’s holiday, Halloween (actually Hallowe’en, but I prefer to use the more common spelling) is almost as popular with adults. According to Nicholas Rogers, author of Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, “Halloween . . . has become a major party night for adults, arguably the most important after New Year’s Eve. . . . [T]he amount of money spent on Halloween has more than doubled in the last decade, making it the second retail bonanza after Christmas.”
Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is a corruption of All Hallows Eve, which is traditionally observed on the night before All Saints Day (All Hallows Day). Like other Christian holy days, Halloween was adapted from a pagan festival, in this case the Celtic feast of Samhain (pronounced sow-end). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Samhain “was the eve of the new [Celtic] year. . .and was the occasion for one of the ancient fire festivals when huge bonfires were set on hilltops to frighten away evil spirits.” On Samhain, the Celts believed, the spirit world and the mortal realm come into close contact and spirits can slip out of their domain to visit our world. Today, followers of the Craft or Wicca (witches) still observe Samhain as the greatest of eight seasonal sabats. Rich Wandel, an openly gay high priest of Wicca, told the authors of The Gay Almanac that “Samhain . . . is a time of connection to those who have gone before us and will return again. It is my favorite ritual, and is one we never let the students lead. We do it ourselves, because it is important, particularly in terms of the many friends that all of us in our communities have lost.”
Though Protestant reformers tried to suppress All Hallows Day observances as being both pagan and papist, Halloween emerged as a secular holiday during the 19th and 20th centuries. And while Halloween is enjoyed by everyone, “it has been the gay community,” Rogers tells us, “that has most flamboyantly exploited Halloween’s potential as a transgressive festival, as one that operates outside or on the margins of orthodox time, space, and hierarchy. Indeed, it is the gay community that has been arguably most responsible for Halloween’s adult rejuvenation.” What William Stewart, writing about Halloween in Cassell’s Queer Companion, called “the gay festival par excellence,” has been observed by queer people long before there were Pride Days or Coming Out Days; Southern Decadence or Wigstock; bear busts, circuit parties, leather runs, nudist gatherings or womyn’s music festivals. Long before there was Disney, Halloween was and is the original Gay Day.
