Simply Irresistable!!

A winter evening.
Four friends.
One barsaat.
Four glasses of chai.

Hundred bucks of gas.
A rusty old bike.
And an open road.

Maggi noodles.
A hostel room.
4.25 a.m.

3 old friends.
3 separate cities.
3 coffee mugs.
1 internet messenger.

Rain on a hot tin roof.
Pakoras deep-frying.
Neighbours dropping in.
A party.

You and mom.
A summer night.
A bottle of coconut oil.
A head massage.
Gossiping about absent family members.

(From a mail from one of my friends!!)

Halloween Party!

Well this October 31st 2006, I got my first chance to attend a Halloween party. It was good fun especially when you get a chance to see some of the academically serious folks dressed up in funny costumes to keep up the spirit of the party. Even in my college department, there was a pumpkin patch created in the administrative office with one pumpkin dedicated to each professor :-). Well this said, it enthused me to know more about the history of Halloween and so here is this blog with my findings about it.

Halloween, variously called Samhain, and other names based on the pagan region that celebrated, falls at the midpoint between the Autumnal Equinox (around Sept 20th, give or take) and the Winter Solstice (Dec 21st, give or take). Of course, equinoxes have the day/night of equal length (12 hours each). Recall that when people did not have electricity or other modern comforts, and relied in a more direct fashion on what they grew for themselves, it was important to pay attention to these solar cycles.

So, after the Autumnal Equinox, the days become shorter and the night becomes longer, until reaching the Winter Solstice, when the night is longest and the day is the shortest. However, the Winter Solstice is usually considered a more positive time, because the days begin to get longer from that time. So, All Hallow'sEve, is considered the darkest time... the days are getting shorter and shorter, and will continue to get shorter until the Winter Solstice, still a month and a half away. It was this growing darkness which associated that time of the year with the "spooky" feeling that Halloween is characterized by. It was thought that during this time, the veil between the world of the living and the world of the dead was thinnest. But some considered this time to be the best to worship their ancestors.

The tradition of wearing scary masks and costumes was developed, supposedly, to scare away the dead from the world of the living, and make them want to go back to the land of the dead.

Since most of these traditions developed long ago, often in cultures that did not have much literacy, it is probable that one cannot fully answer in a definitive sense what Halloween is, especially since there is so much regional variety to how it is celebrated. However, Halloween is one of the most pure pagan traditions still going.

I had also sported a mask on my face just for the fun sake of it. I shall upload that picture asap :-)