Fieldwork Project
Anthropology
Halloween
So far anthropology 1300 has been an amazing course.it really surprised me how much I have learnt from this course in just a short period of time and I am still eager to learn more of the interesting, awkward and weird story and also watch more videos related to the course. Considering the fact that I am not anthropology major my interest in the course is just so amazing and impressive to me. I am really happy I chose this course to fulfill my GE units. I started this fieldwork with a question in mind. What is Halloween? As far as I have observed, I have come to a conclusion that Halloween can be said to be generally about ghost and the spirit of the dead. it's a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries amongst certain group of people on the October 31st. the typical festive Halloween activity include trick-or-treating, costume parties, carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories and watching horror and scary films. Out of the listed typical festive Halloween activities, I participated in quite a good number of them and it was pretty good being the first time for me to observe Halloween and attend Halloween activities. Before I started my Halloween with my family, I had the opportunity to speak to some new people I met concerning the event (Halloween). speaking with them made me see and realize that some people most especially the extremely rich people that are really confused of what to do with money spend so much on Halloween in ways that I couldn't even believe or imagine. People actually spend thousands of dollars making costumes especially for themselves and their families about two to three weeks before the Halloween day. Like just a man that was said in the news that went to a mask workshop to get a face-off for Halloween. it took two weeks to make a plaster of the face and on the day of Halloween, it took about two hours to make the new eyes, ears and other things and it cost this man 15,000 dollars to make a perfect and wonderful costume just like he said. I was so shocked to see that what most students pay in for a year for their tuition and fees in the university was used to make Halloween costume to be used in a day. I really laughed when I saw this and I said to myself what is the next awkward surprise am going to hear or see concerning this one occasion. Well my Halloween started with carving pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns and having a large family, lots of pumpkins were purchased for the carving. this carving was done a day to Halloween which is on the October 30th. My aunties taught most of us how to carve a pumpkin perfectly to give the design wanted. According to my aunties, the first step to carving a pumpkin is hollowing out the pumpkin with the aid of a keyhole saw and using an electric light for illumination the hole should be made in the bottom or side so you can hide the cord. Then scoop out flesh, pulp and seeds with a plaster scraper. Then we transferred our selected template design which was made earlier and fixed it to the pumpkin and traced the design by poking holes with a sharp awl. Then we removed the template and carved along the pattern with a miniature saw and then candles were placed inside the pumpkins. My aunties also warned all of us that to prevent the exposed areas of the pumpkins from turning brown that a film of Vaseline should be applied. Secondly, the little children were being dressed up in different Halloween costumes. They were dressed up and my aunties and uncles shared them in groups of three each to play a particular prank and tricks to the neighbors in the neighborhood. There were five groups. In the first group the kids were dressed up as though they were inanimate Halloween décor for the lawn. Such as scarecrow, Frankenstein. Then they were told to be as still as they could and when people passed by they should jump out and scare the heck out of them. The second group, dressed in hospital gowns and walked around saying" they think I'm crazy but I'm not. They deserve to die. They can't take me back and so on. This was one of the funniest groups to me. I couldn't stop laughing. They looked exceptionally funny in the hospital gowns. The third group dressed up and were told to ring the bells of the neighbors and when somebody answers, put candy into his bowl and the fifth dressed up and visited neighbors houses and write on their mirrors with their fingers, delivering a scary message such as I'm watching you. Breath on the mirror and the words can be seen and it dries naturally. So that when they take their shower the words will appear again when the mirror fogs up. it was really great. The kids were led by an older person but I asked not to be assigned to any group so I can just observe and see how it all goes. This was done in the afternoon around past two. In the evening around 4 o'clock the teenagers/youths dressed up to attend a costume party including me. When I asked why the kids weren't coming along for the costume party, I was told by one of my senior cousins that costume parties here during Halloweens are for teenagers and adults who may be considered too old for trick-or-treating. And she also said that Halloween is the most popular costume party in the United States. When we arrived at the party venue, I met lots of people dressed in different, funny and scary costumes. I couldn't even recognize my close friend. Pictures were taken in the party and cupcakes were served. there were different types of cupcakes served that I have never heard their names before in my life such as Halloween mud pie, creepy cupcakes, mini monster cupcakes and so on. And in the costume parties’ people were nominated so as to vote the person with the best costume. At the end of this the person with the best costume was dressed in some kind of modified half man, half woman dressing that I can really not explain. Afterwards, people danced and danced while some people at other corners talked and laughed together until about 8 pm when we left the party. I got to meet some new people that my cousins introduced me to. After a little random discussion with them I got the opportunity to discuss Halloween and everything about it. When I asked if they always celebrated Halloween the way they were doing every year that is by attending parties. They said to me that it all depended on their age. They started by saying that we all grow and our taste for different things change. they told me that as kids they were taken round to the neighbors houses by either their parents, aunties or their bigger cousins to knock on the doors of their neighbors houses to ask for candies, sweets and chocolates and they will take their dinner, watch horror movies and play until they fall asleep. then as older children they got to be the ones taking the little kids round their neighbors houses asking for candies, sweets and chocolates too and most times their parents will take them out for dinner in restaurants of their choice and after dinner they will talk, chat, laugh and have fun and then go home to end the day with a night sleep. Then as teenagers like they are now they help decorate the houses and prepare meals during the day time and in the evening or night they attend parties like they were doing then. It was interesting for me to know how they change their activities as they grow older. Jill dubisch in the article “run for the wall in the conformity and conflict textbook said that Davis Floyd stated that the primary purpose of rituals is transformation and for this reasons rituals are often performed to mark important occasions, times or transitions. Like the people I met in the party, their way of celebrating Halloween changed with time as they grew older, this indicates that they undergo transformations and pass through different transitions in Halloween. It all really made sense to me. I also asked them what they thought Halloween meant. and they said well as kids they thought it was a really a great day to dress up in funny and beautiful attires and get lots of candies, sweets and candies from people. They also said that from stories that their grandparents and other relatives told them, it implied that Halloween is about the spirit of the dead and ghost and sometimes people go to bushes to have picnics in the night and build up camps as well. That sounded extremely scary and strange to me. All the same meeting those people really gave broader explanation of Halloween implies. Our aunties didn't attend any party because they wanted to stay home and complete the decoration of the house, prepare the meals and set things up for the night.
It was time for my grandparents’ activity for the day which was story-telling. My grand-mother told a story named "the magic hour". And it says- an hour after midnight, the clock will strike "one", but an hour later the clock will strike "one again". These sixty minutes suspended in the time will prove to Eddie McCourt (a cast in the story) to be the most precious of his young life. Born on October 31st, the nine year old Eddie has a special birthday wish this year to see his twin brother, Brian who fell from their tree house and passed away just three weeks before. Somehow, though the bonds of communication between these two little boys have not been broken. Eddie knows that somehow Brian is still alive. Eddie also knows that somehow Brian is expecting him and that his extraordinary hour when time stands still will serve as his vehicle of transport. in a thrilling and other worldly Halloween adventure, Eddie seeks to celebrate his birthday with his brother and along the way develops a new understanding of life so profound that not only his life but the lives of all those around him will be changed forever because of " the magic hour". This is just the summary of the story my grandmother told the kids. Afterwards the kids went to have their meals and prepared their blankets to watch the horror movie my uncle bought for them. Well I couldn't watch this movie with them because I do not watch horror movies because they give me sleepless nights. But when I asked my uncle why they have to watch horror movies he said, it’s just to build up the spirit of Halloween, it’s for the fun of it he said. I understood his answer but that wasn’t enough to explain why the kids watch the horror movies. This made me ask myself some questions about why my family celebrated Halloween like they did. The Halloween event made know and see how much of a great job my families were doing throwing themselves into the event. And I started wondering and asking myself certain questions and wondering what the answers were. Firstly, I asked myself why my parents put so much energy into this event (Halloween). And I came to realize when I asked and was told that they celebrated Halloween the way they did for the purpose of bringing the family members together to celebrate their lives and making sure that we are all happy. This is so because my grandparents lost a loved one few hours after Halloween was over and ever since they believed that being happy at all times especially the Halloween day makes their lost loved one happy and at peace. They do this especially on Halloween because Halloween officially represented the last time they spent time with their lost loved one. This also applies to all our loved ones that have died. This is event (Halloween) is a ritual that is performed yearly on October 30th I’m my family. This ritual usually brings all our family members together. This is just like the article “run for the wall” by Jill dubisch the conformity and conflict textbook where many motorcycle riders gather in southern California to start a journey across the United States from California to Washington D.C. this was for the purpose of the memorial of the Vietnam veterans that died in war. The reasons and ways my families celebrated Halloween are not all the same with other people around us. Different people have their different reasons and ways of celebrating Halloween. Just like the article pointed out in “run for the wall” in the conformity and conflict textbook. There are different purpose of rituals which could be to maintain order in the world, for some people it’s just to have fun, for others it might be to connect with people, gods and ancestors or to express group or individual identity and lastly it might be because it’s mandatory in their culture or ethnic group. Just like the fourth of July is mandatory in the United States and must be observed by everybody. All the same, I had a very long and fun-filled day on Halloween day. I really enjoyed spending time withal my family members and am looking forward to the next Halloween.