25. Halloween in Italy
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| Tomorrow: All Saints' Day- the cemeteries will be teeming with people |
I have told everyone that I am not available tonight as this is my super-busy moment when broom sticks are made to take flight and wander through the skies with their relative passenger in pointed hat and black cloak aboard… however, most people are not convinced, claiming I am just making excuses and I’m not at all a witch.
Be it as one prefers to take it, and in spite that the Catholic Church has always snubbed the recurrence, Halloween cannot be ignored, people simply love to be scared out of their wits at least once in a while. However, I have never seen a ghost but that does not mean that unseen life does not surround us with every step we take. I often think that what ever kindness I show to one or another living being, be it animal, vegetable or human, it will return to me promptly like a boomerang- even though I may not see it- I will sense it.
Neither does the word ‘death’ send ripples of fear down my spine- the Italians have such a nice way of treating death especially on Halloween. They take up buckets, mops, brushes, dusters and descend upon their ancestor’s tombs or niches and start polishing the immured photos, scrub the marble stone, take out the plastic flowers that have adorned the gravestone all year round and replace them with chrysanthemums, white, yellow and purple. Then tomorrow, 1st of November the cemeteries will be teeming with people to celebrate the day their loved ones have become Saints- or so we hope.
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Be it as one prefers to take it, and in spite that the Catholic Church has always snubbed the recurrence, Halloween cannot be ignored, people simply love to be scared out of their wits at least once in a while. However, I have never seen a ghost but that does not mean that unseen life does not surround us with every step we take. I often think that what ever kindness I show to one or another living being, be it animal, vegetable or human, it will return to me promptly like a boomerang- even though I may not see it- I will sense it.
Neither does the word ‘death’ send ripples of fear down my spine- the Italians have such a nice way of treating death especially on Halloween. They take up buckets, mops, brushes, dusters and descend upon their ancestor’s tombs or niches and start polishing the immured photos, scrub the marble stone, take out the plastic flowers that have adorned the gravestone all year round and replace them with chrysanthemums, white, yellow and purple. Then tomorrow, 1st of November the cemeteries will be teeming with people to celebrate the day their loved ones have become Saints- or so we hope.
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