It’s been the subject of countless Hollywood movies and a seasonal bonanza for retailers and costumiers around the world. But how does Halloween get to be celebrated in a Catholic stronghold like Malta?
It is true that only a handful of middle-class kids are likely to try their luck tonight with some “trick or treating” – the knocking on doors to demand some sweets or a couple of cents, against the threat that tight-fisted homeowners will suffer retribution on their property.
Chances are they will be told to get lost, and it will be just another lousy night for trick-or-treaters.
But it is also true that police will be on the alert in the small town of Swieqi, where egg-throwing on the night of Halloween is now something of an annual occurrence albeit on a small scale.
“We have already taken precautions by ordering police to be present in Swieqi and to be on the lookout for troublemakers,” Carmen Said, the mayor of Swieqi told MaltaToday. “I have had people calling me already to see that their houses won’t be subject once again to egg-throwing.”
Said also wonders why Swieqi seems to be the only locality where Halloween makes an unexpected showing. “My suspicion could be that foreign children may have imported it and encouraged their Maltese friends to take part. My own grandson had told me once he would be coming to Swieqi to join in the ‘fun’, but I warned him to stay away because the police would be patrolling the area.”
And it is also true that “trick or treating” is part of the spread of American Halloween through Cable TV. Without any roots linking it to Malta, kids from Swieqi – a young, affluent town whose youngest members are its first native generation – may have latched onto the mischief of it all through television. Not even British colonialism during two-thirds of the 20th century managed to import English celebrations such as Halloween or the Guy Fawkes bonfire night.
Despite the general level of disinterest in American Halloween, the Church’s diocesan commission on occult and Satanism – the Maltese Curia’s exorcists – still deem it fit to warn parents against allowing their kids to have anything to do with Halloween.
The commission’s official declaration is that Catholics who take their religion seriously are encouraged not to participate, not even superficially, in such celebrations. The reason would be due to Halloween’s pagan roots and because of its perceived proximity to the occult.
It’s a debatable statement, given that even Christmas celebrations have strong pagan roots, later usurped by the Catholic Church. And that the Church’s own parish festas are often marked by drunken rabbles and blasphemy directed at rival parish saints.
Children trying their luck tonight at trick or treating may end up being disappointed. Worse, they could get picked up by the local police.
Tomorrow, during All Souls, they will be taken by their parents to pay their respects on their loves ones’ graves. They might as well be staying inside doing their homework.