The Origins of Halloween

On this 'All Saint's Day' as the Catholic Church has dubbed November 1,09 (a day to celebrate all the Saint's that do not have a specific day of their own), I have thought that it is time to remember how All Hallow's Eve, or Halloween began, and why we celebrate the way we do.

While the United States and Canada use Halloween as a commercial excuse to spend money and make people dress in 'sexy' costumes, places like Ireland still celebrate Halloween in the true spirit of the day. Ireland is still considered the birthplace of Halloween, and it is still celebrated in the true feeling of the day. Instead of running around in skimpy costumes and asking everyone for candy, the Irish still light bonfires all throughout the countrysides, and celebrate the end of Summer and the beginning of Winter.

Halloween is typically linked to the Celtic festival of Samhain which is derived from old Irish to roughly mean "Summer's End". The Celts believed that the border between this world and the 'otherworld' became thin on Samhain which allowed both harmless and harmful spirits to pass through to the other side. Costumes and masks were worn to allow family spirits enter one's home, while warding off the harmful spirits.

Halloween is derived from All Hallows Even or e'en, which has evolved from old english. In the 800's when this was being celebrated and the tradition began, the Church measured the day as starting at Sunset, so in the past, All Hallows' Even and All Saint's Day were celebrated as one, not as two different and distinct days.

In traditional Celtic Halloween festivals, large turnips were hollowed out, carved with faces and placed in windows to ward off evil spirits. The carving of pumpkins began in North America was associated with harvest time for years, before it was finally associated with Halloween until the mid to late 1800's.

Keep reading and you will find out the main places to go to visit the best places to celebrate Halloween, All Hallows' Even and All Saint's Day.

The Perfect Day

I had the extreme pleasure to make it up into our beautiful Canadian Rockies the other day, and was left breathless by the beauty once more.

It wasn't necessarily the warmest of days, although the sun was enough to warm me when it broke through the tree tops that haven't quite had their leaf dressing break through just yet.  The river along Johnston Canyon was keeping a brisk breeze flowing through the canyon, and it smelt like heaven.  It smelt like it does after a spring rain, not quite freezing, but crisp and clean.

I walked along the still soggy trial - no matter how much they try to overcome nature to make it an 'easy' hike for those that aren't prepared, mother nature still finds a way to make it her own - and was enjoying the peace and serenity of nature, when two female hikers over took me.

We have all had our run-ins with these hikers.  The ones that were all the trendy fashions, and carry cell phones, as well as water bottles and mitts that match the trim on their still new jackets.  What flabbergasted me the most though, was that they were up and back from the falls before I had made it there.  And on the way down, they weren't talking to each other, they weren't even walking together.  They were both on their cell phones, walking one in front of the other for a good kilometer down the mountain.

Why rush through a beautiful hike such as Johnston's Canyon, let alone talk business on cell phones when you are with someone?  These business women had fooled themselves into thinking that they had taken the day off, when in fact they were working even harder, on trying not to work.  And failing miserably.

I know we need to stay connected, hell my publisher is in Australia, and I have family on three different continents, but that does not mean we should miss out on living, so that we can stay in touch.  

By the way -  the falls were stunning.  Still half frozen in their glacial state, with water cascading down the falls into caverns and pools below.  I visit often, but it never fails to take my breath away.  (Without a cellular phone in my hand.)

How Cheap Is Cheap Enough?

I know during this global recession, everyone is trying to get a good deal.  No one wants to spend too much, and no one wants to spend more than they have to.  My whole question is how much is too much?

After my last post, I received some emails regarding the swine flu (to which we are no longer supposed to be calling the swine flu because someone got offended?) and decided to investigate what this really is doing to our global travel economy.

While travel was down due to the recession to begin with, this really hasn't hit the industry yet.  The one key think that I was noticing was the fact that everyone seemed to think that they would get to go to Mexico for nothing now.  

Comments I heard were - "I bet we can get flights for $10 to Mexico now", "They must be giving trips away!"

But after speaking to a couple of the agents, they put these fallacies to rest, saying that only one airline was flying to Mexico, and that tickets were more expensive than ever, because some people still wanted to go on their holidays.  Supply is down, and strangely enough, demand is up.

The same holds true with Europe.  Airlines are struggling to fill their planes, Flight Centre is attempting to maintain their footing (with airline price guarantees for international flights) and still, people are waiting for prices to fall.  The first time I went to Australia, almost a decade ago, I took the milk run, as there were no direct flights, and paid over $1800.00.  Now, you can get a direct flight from Melbourne to Los Angeles for $1016.00.  If you will take one stop in New Zealand, you can have it for $950.  But still people are claiming that this is too much to pay.

My question is, how much is too much.  When will it be cheap enough?

The airlines have to make sure that they can pay for the fuel, the upkeep and their staff to get us safely from one destination to another.  After the recent scare that passengers had on a flight from Sydney to Vancouver, we would think that paying a little more to ensure our own safety would be better?

Swine Flu - Level 5 epidemic?

Do we really think that this is causing the same level of mayhem that was afforded to the SARS epidemic?  The facts of this flu are as follows.

As of April 30,09:

• 150 Confirmed deaths - all in Mexico except for one 23 year old Mexican boy who died in Texas after coming to visit family
• No one outside of Mexico has been sick enough to be hospitalized (except the mexican boy listed above)
• The UK, Canada and (hopefully the USA) have more than enough TamiFlu to vaccinate - and this has been shown to work against this strain of Swine Flu

There have been no mass deaths like there was with SARS.

The swine flu was reported and action has been taken - unlike with SARS.

The borders to Mexico are effectively getting closed down with many major tour operators, cruise lines and airlines canceling all flights, tours and ports of call effective immediately.

We are aware that this can become a global pandemic, but why make people paranoid?

One travel agent remarked that "I am getting calls from clients that haven't left yet, stating that they think they have this flu.  They haven't been out of the country in over a year."  **At this point in time, there were no confirmed cases in Canada.**

We can rest assured that this over-reaction to the swine flu (with travel to many destinations, not just Mexico being cancelled) our global recession is only going to worsen over the next couple of months - a situation that no one will be happy to see.

My love/hate relationship

While the snow continues to fall, I am reminded of my last two homes, in New Zealand and Australia, where the snow didn't find me.  I had to go find it.  And when I did see snow, it was a completely joyful reunion where I frolicked and played like a small child again!  But the difference was that I didn't see it every day.  It didn't plague me on my days off, taunting me with nice days when I am stuck inside working, and then snowing every chance it gets when I'm allowed to join the outside world.

Here we are, sitting at the half way point of April and we are still getting snow.  A winter day in Melbourne means rain and wind.  Same as a lot of the UK, save Scotland who gets their fair share of snow.  A winter day in the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand, means rain and cold winds.  I can take the wind.  I can stand the rain.  What I'm a little sick of is this white stuff that is a cross between ice and rain, and brings with it freezing cold temperatures, and misery.

Why am I here?  Why do I call Calgary home?  I don't.  That probably explains everything.

Ottawa, a city best viewed with the ugly lights off!

As the title sounds, Ottawa is a city that is best viewed after twilight. The bright sunshine (when there is any) just brings to light the cruel harsh fact that ottawa is a boring and visually unattractive city (besides a select few buildings that once instilled the hope that this could be a great city) that houses a select few travelers, army personnel, Politicians and University students. What could be a better mix?

The shopping complex in the centre of town - the Rideau Centre - was once a stately and large shopping area. Now hooligans (students with nothing better to do) parade around after hours so that a large number of security guards have to guard the shops and the premises, in a not so behind the scenes fashion.

The streets are filthy (they should take a hint from Australia and start employing some of the unemployed in jobs meant to tidy their own filth, but hell, why would we want to create jobs?), the public spaces are devoid of any color other than dull browns, beiges and blacks, and even the Fairmont Chateau Laurier looks out of place. It actually looks more like a misplaced Disneyland castle, than something that should be sitting across the canal from our parliament buildings.

The parliament is great, although it sits on top of the hill as if too high and mighty to have real buildings surround it as they do in London, but the buildings themselves are quite a feature. They were rebuilt, and while stunning inside, still quite devoid of any real character.

Overall? Ottawa is not really worth the money it takes to get there. More on some of the better points of Ottawa to come soon.

On Days Like Today...

Once again the snow is falling outside and I am surrounded by the crazy white stuff.  The only saving grace is the fact that it's not actually cold outside as well.  But it does bring to mind the craziness that ensued when a girlfriend and I were still in Australia.

We had decided that in the wet and dreary winter, that is nothing compared to this I might add, that we were going to drive up to the mountains to get pictures of us with the snow.

Now these aren't Rocky Mountain type mountains, but they were more than our foothills, so we will continue calling them mountains for the time being.

I remember us driving up these crazy back roads, having no chains or supplies - kinda like we would have done in Canada - and finally getting to a point where we could go no further.  (Well without paying that is) So we pulled over to a pullout, and got the camera out.  But before we did, we put on our boardshorts, sandals and took off our jackets and posed!  The pictures were great and got a whole pile of respect from those back in Canada, but man was it still freaking cold!

Great pictures, and great memories.  Too bad this snow isn't like that snow.  Instead of having to live in it, we got back in the car and went back to civilization - which didn't have any snow!

Sometimes Travel Isn't Necessary

Please forgive my lack of posting the past couple days.  But as the title suggests, sometimes you don't have to stray very far from your own back yard to find yourself in an exotic land.

And that is exactly what happened in Calgary for the past two days.  A snowstorm blew in and was causing all sorts of commotion with close to 30cm of snow dropped in about 8 hours.  It's amazing how drivers who have been living in a snowy wintery wonderland for years on end, can still forget how to drive after the snow disappearing for all of five days.  

It was quite a scene, sitting on my balcony and watching the craziness slide by.  And slide it did with the amount of people on the road who were a little too heavy on their brakes, as well as their petrol pedals!  Cars going backwards, sliding sideways, and of course a fair number were stuck.  Stuck in snowbanks, stuck after spinning their tires, it was quite a sight to behold!

And on days like that, it's nice to know that I can step outside my condo and see a sight so foreign (though it shouldn't be) that all I can do is laugh.

God bless the last snowstorm of the year.  (And hopefully the last one that I will have to live through here in Canada!)

How could I resist.

When Americans and other tourists can't know the difference between where Mount Rushmore is, and where the Grand Canyon is (and to know that they are two different places completely) I thought that it was time to put the age old debate to rest.  

What does Mount Rushmore look like from Canada?

We now know.

Reflections

I've been back in Canada for just over a week, and the itchy feet have begun already.  But instead of wanting to wander where ever they may take me, they are craving a certain destination.  Where, I'm not quite sure, but if it has a pile of Irish blokes with thick irish accents, I think I'll be as close as I could expect to be!

I was chatting to a girlfriend the other day, when it finally dawned on me.  I've been single, and frustratingly enough, I've not necessarily wanted to be.  Just recently, I took my own love life in my own hands and decided to chat to a sweet looking guy who I've been crushing on for quite some time.  (They say that you grow out of crushing, but if anything, it just gets worse when you know it's not supposed to happen ;) )

And after asking him out and getting a yes, I was subjected to the add on - I think I should tell you that I do have a girlfriend, but I'd love to go out for a coffee.  What the hell does a person say to that? 

But in a round about way, it brought home the fact that I don't attract the dear boring Canadian boys, because I don't want to be here.  I crave to be someplace else, and being with someone who finds this dreary humdrum, but beautiful country home would do nothing but drive me mad and fuel mad arguments about why we were still here.

So the feet are itching, and I feel it's time to move someplace that reminds me of home (not Canada unfortunately) so that maybe, just maybe I can join coupledom.  

Maybe.

But that's a big maybe...