Freaky Friday

 Well, Friday was an unusual day at school. I had decided to do a 'fun' Halloween themed lesson for my Year 9s period 5. I had a small amount of reading and discussion planned, then some Halloween puzzles and I planned to end with a collaborative* Spooky story writing activity. I didn't get far into the discussion before things went wrong.

The short reading mentioned the Celtic origins of Halloween, the festival of Samhain and then how it was incorporated into other festivals by first the Romans and then later by Pope Boniface IV. Too much time was spent on giggling about the name "Boniface", I'm sad to say.

The major hurdle, however, turned up at the discussion of Saints and Martyrs (there was a reference in the text to All Saints' Day). I valiantly tried to explain that a martyr was someone who was killed for the beliefs or who died for a cause.

"Like a witch?" one student asked.

"Not usually," I replied starting to feel that fear that one feels when students are about to use your definitions against you.

"But they were killed for their beliefs. They were burnt at the stake."

I reluctantly agreed that a witch could be considered a martyr but not a Saint.

"What about Joan of Arc?" piped up another student who had done her extension research on her. "She was a Saint and burnt as a witch."

The discussion became somewhat messy then with half the class being distracted by discussing the TV show 'Joan of Arcadia' and me trying to point out that the people who burnt Joan were different from the people who thought she was a Saint and that no one actually thought she was BOTH a witch and a saint.

Eventually the discussion mutated into one about the origins of Trick-or-Treating. Several students complained bitterly about not ever being allowed to go trick-or-treating because their parents "didn't believe in Halloween."

"Don't believe in Halloween or don't believe in trick-or-treating," I asked.

"Halloween," bemoaned the student. "They're stupid. They won't even let me get dressed up or have a party."

I felt a little worried. Were they staunch fundamentalist Christians who would be offended by my Halloween themed lessons? What about the fact I had lent this student Harry Potter book to read? I felt an angry phone call coming on Monday.

Fortunately some other students started questioning her. It seems her parents are fine with fantasy and horror fiction, they just don't think that you should celebrate halloween because it is a holiday about evil**.

It made me think about the nature of holidays. Personally I find that they are so commericalised that their origins or the spirit of the origin isn't really the relevant. I do not think that eating or giving out candy for Halloween means that you are celebrating demonic spiritis any more than eating an Easter egg makes a person believe in the resurrection of Christ. Really most holidays now are just about the purchasing and eating of chocolate.

* Essentially the plans was like the game "and the consequences were..." where each person writes a sentence and then folds the paper back and passes it on to the next person to write the next sentence but with each sentence starter being given so that the kids just insert the characters, dialogue and location etc.

** Evil is a little unfair I feel. The Celts just liked a fun festival where they could light fires, sacrise a few animals and get drunk. Much like the average Kiwi BBQ. They might have believed that the dead spirits walked the Earth for that night but it was not sinister. Buddism and Shintoism have similiar festivals and people don't think they are evil, do they?