It all started with the pumpkin
October 30, 2005 | 12:00am
I’ve always wondered why there are orange pumpkin lanterns during Halloween. But lazy me never bothered to research on it until last year when my cousin Fe Garbanzos sent me two balikbayan boxes of old and new Halloween décor from Chicago. My favorite of all is a big orange hand with a pumpkin pouch and with a few clicks on the Net, I got the answers.
The pumpkin lantern is Jack O’Lantern. Its legend goes way back to hundreds of years of Irish history. As the story goes, Stingy Jack was a miserable old drunk who liked to play tricks on everyone: family, friends, his mother, and even the Devil himself. One day, he tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree. Once the Devil was up the apple tree, Stingy Jack hurriedly placed crosses around the trunk of the tree. The Devil was then unable to get down. Stingy Jack made the Devil promise him not to take his soul when he died. Once the devil promised not to take his soul, Stingy Jack removed the crosses and let the Devil down.
Many years later, when Jack finally died, he went to the pearly gates of heaven and was told by Saint Peter that he was too mean and too cruel and had led a miserable and worthless life on earth. He was not allowed to enter heaven. He then went down to hell. The Devil kept his promise and would not allow him to enter hell. Now Jack was scared and had nowhere to go but to wander about forever in the darkness between heaven and hell. He asked the Devil how he could leave as there was no light. The Devil tossed him an ember from the flames of hell to help him light his way. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed-out turnip, one of his favorite foods, which he always carried around with him whenever he could steal one. From that day onward, Stingy Jack roamed the earth without a resting place, lighting his way as he went with his jack-o-lantern.
So, the Irish hollowed out turnips and placed a light in them to ward off evil spirits and keep Stingy Jack away. These were the original jack-o-lanterns. In the 1800s, the Irish immigrants who came to America quickly discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve out. So, they used pumpkins for the jacks, and until today Americans and the world over use orange pumpkins on Halloween.
"What can we use locally?" I asked Claude, because we do not have those big orange pumpkins. And I had another problem: I did not want to spend. Claude went down to the bodega and then to the garden and produced golden coconuts. With some black art paper, a pair of scissors and glue, he showed me how to turn the niyog in into lanterns.
He scattered the decorated coconuts until our small garage could take no more of them. But the coconuts awakened Claude’s creative juices, and he could not be stopped. He climbed up a ladder, hung paper buntings on our short street, and decorated the entire block, mixing the decor from Atching Fe and recycled wood plus Styro from our bodega.
"Just perfect for a costume party," Claude said.
Right away, he texted family and friends who readily agreed to come in costume or pay a fine.
Nico refused to wear anything more than a scary mask. Claude and I planned to come as two mummies, which would look good under the black lights, with some red paint splattered all over us.
But my brother-in-law Pol insisted I should come as Cruella de Vil and promised to get me a Dalmatian. Not wanting to spend, I simply got an old black-and-white shirt and borrowed a balloon dotted skirt from my sister-in-law Doren, who came as Tina Turner with matching wig and attitude.
Luckily, Miles, our super galing hairdresser from Hair Definitions (along Pearl Drive in Ortigas) was visiting and did my hair and face. She dusted one side of my hair with lots of baby powder for that nice half-black, half-white effect. And when Pol sent the Dalmatian, the look was complete.
Claude, the ugly hunchback, had a folded towel under his gray shirt. He got an old ping-pong ball, cut it in half, and drew a big eyeball on it with a marker. All the kids screamed when he stooped and looked at them. Pretty Esmeralda nicely pacified them with sweets.
My beautiful friend Dita Patawaran came as Cleopatra and bagged the most glamorous award, and our grandnephew Wacky got the best child costume. The credit goes to Connie Tayag, his very creative mom for making a table costume from an old plastic tablecloth and cardboards. She glued plastic cups and burgers on it and Wacky was like a walking ghost table.
Dan Tayag and his two sons looked like over-the-hill gays in their borrowed Assumption high school uniforms. Lito Galang and his sons were not very convincing in nuns habits, while Rene Tayag in a brown sackcloth refused to mingle and drink like a real monk.
Five-year-old Anton Cruz came in a warrior outfit, made of colored cardboards by his artistic dad Jepoy. Jepoy painted his face and won the most scary costume award. Our niece, Michele McTavish, came as the sexy Legally Blonde playboy bunny. Sweet Dindin David came in the perfect costume to suit her personality – an angel with wings and halo. Claude’s cool 82-year-old mom was our fairy grandmother in a pink wig.
Halloween is for kids, teens and adults. For the kids, the trick-or-treat excites them. For the older ones, Halloween means a costume party. More than 50 guests came in very interesting outfits to our party, mostly without spending a thing. Only three corny guests did not come in costumes. We heavily fined them and bought more booze. We drunk and danced until morning.
It was believed that on the eve of Nov. 1, demons, witches, and evil spirits roamed the earth. They made fun and scared mortals. The frightened humans offered them sweets to spare them from their tricks. They wore masks and ghostly costumes to disguise themselves and roamed with the spirits. That is what people believed and did in ancient times, and these customs have come down to us, practically unaltered, as our familiar Halloween celebration. Our costumes just got more exciting.
The pumpkin lantern is Jack O’Lantern. Its legend goes way back to hundreds of years of Irish history. As the story goes, Stingy Jack was a miserable old drunk who liked to play tricks on everyone: family, friends, his mother, and even the Devil himself. One day, he tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree. Once the Devil was up the apple tree, Stingy Jack hurriedly placed crosses around the trunk of the tree. The Devil was then unable to get down. Stingy Jack made the Devil promise him not to take his soul when he died. Once the devil promised not to take his soul, Stingy Jack removed the crosses and let the Devil down.
Many years later, when Jack finally died, he went to the pearly gates of heaven and was told by Saint Peter that he was too mean and too cruel and had led a miserable and worthless life on earth. He was not allowed to enter heaven. He then went down to hell. The Devil kept his promise and would not allow him to enter hell. Now Jack was scared and had nowhere to go but to wander about forever in the darkness between heaven and hell. He asked the Devil how he could leave as there was no light. The Devil tossed him an ember from the flames of hell to help him light his way. Jack placed the ember in a hollowed-out turnip, one of his favorite foods, which he always carried around with him whenever he could steal one. From that day onward, Stingy Jack roamed the earth without a resting place, lighting his way as he went with his jack-o-lantern.
So, the Irish hollowed out turnips and placed a light in them to ward off evil spirits and keep Stingy Jack away. These were the original jack-o-lanterns. In the 1800s, the Irish immigrants who came to America quickly discovered that pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve out. So, they used pumpkins for the jacks, and until today Americans and the world over use orange pumpkins on Halloween.
"What can we use locally?" I asked Claude, because we do not have those big orange pumpkins. And I had another problem: I did not want to spend. Claude went down to the bodega and then to the garden and produced golden coconuts. With some black art paper, a pair of scissors and glue, he showed me how to turn the niyog in into lanterns.
He scattered the decorated coconuts until our small garage could take no more of them. But the coconuts awakened Claude’s creative juices, and he could not be stopped. He climbed up a ladder, hung paper buntings on our short street, and decorated the entire block, mixing the decor from Atching Fe and recycled wood plus Styro from our bodega.
"Just perfect for a costume party," Claude said.
Right away, he texted family and friends who readily agreed to come in costume or pay a fine.
Nico refused to wear anything more than a scary mask. Claude and I planned to come as two mummies, which would look good under the black lights, with some red paint splattered all over us.
But my brother-in-law Pol insisted I should come as Cruella de Vil and promised to get me a Dalmatian. Not wanting to spend, I simply got an old black-and-white shirt and borrowed a balloon dotted skirt from my sister-in-law Doren, who came as Tina Turner with matching wig and attitude.
Luckily, Miles, our super galing hairdresser from Hair Definitions (along Pearl Drive in Ortigas) was visiting and did my hair and face. She dusted one side of my hair with lots of baby powder for that nice half-black, half-white effect. And when Pol sent the Dalmatian, the look was complete.
Claude, the ugly hunchback, had a folded towel under his gray shirt. He got an old ping-pong ball, cut it in half, and drew a big eyeball on it with a marker. All the kids screamed when he stooped and looked at them. Pretty Esmeralda nicely pacified them with sweets.
My beautiful friend Dita Patawaran came as Cleopatra and bagged the most glamorous award, and our grandnephew Wacky got the best child costume. The credit goes to Connie Tayag, his very creative mom for making a table costume from an old plastic tablecloth and cardboards. She glued plastic cups and burgers on it and Wacky was like a walking ghost table.
Dan Tayag and his two sons looked like over-the-hill gays in their borrowed Assumption high school uniforms. Lito Galang and his sons were not very convincing in nuns habits, while Rene Tayag in a brown sackcloth refused to mingle and drink like a real monk.
Five-year-old Anton Cruz came in a warrior outfit, made of colored cardboards by his artistic dad Jepoy. Jepoy painted his face and won the most scary costume award. Our niece, Michele McTavish, came as the sexy Legally Blonde playboy bunny. Sweet Dindin David came in the perfect costume to suit her personality – an angel with wings and halo. Claude’s cool 82-year-old mom was our fairy grandmother in a pink wig.
Halloween is for kids, teens and adults. For the kids, the trick-or-treat excites them. For the older ones, Halloween means a costume party. More than 50 guests came in very interesting outfits to our party, mostly without spending a thing. Only three corny guests did not come in costumes. We heavily fined them and bought more booze. We drunk and danced until morning.
It was believed that on the eve of Nov. 1, demons, witches, and evil spirits roamed the earth. They made fun and scared mortals. The frightened humans offered them sweets to spare them from their tricks. They wore masks and ghostly costumes to disguise themselves and roamed with the spirits. That is what people believed and did in ancient times, and these customs have come down to us, practically unaltered, as our familiar Halloween celebration. Our costumes just got more exciting.
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