The Living and the Dead

[DavidGrayson]

"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead."   -- from The Dead, by James Joyce


It's October and the days are getting shorter and colder. Two autumn holidays are approaching: Halloween and Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead. Though distinct, the two holidays are both grounded in some of the same conceptual soil.

Halloween is rooted in the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of summer and the harvest, and the onset of winter, the season associated with death. The Celts believed that on this day the boundary between the living and the dead became more permeable and the departed returned to earth. The Samhain tradition included donning costumes/disguises to trick ghosts when they arrived.(1)  

Autumn ghosts
I make them go away
by giving them candy

Garry Gay (Mariposa 9)

In 1000 A.D., the Church designated November 2 as All Souls' Day, partly (it is thought) to replace Samhain with a similar, church-sanctioned event.(2) The same dynamic occurred with a longstanding Aztec commemoration, Day of the Dead. On Day of the Dead, families visit the graves of their deceased relatives, decorating the gravesites with flowers (usually yellow and orange marigolds and chrysanthemums), candles, and other meaningful items. Families also create home altars (ofrendas) honoring their relatives.(3)

As with Samhain, after the Spanish conquest the Catholic Church combined the holiday with All Souls' Day. Originally celebrated in the summer, the Church moved the celebration to November.

With dense and layered meanings, it's no surprise that good haiku have been derived from this cluster of holidays, hovering in autumn, that marks the relationship between the living and the dead.

marigold spice
on the autumn wind
Day of the Dead

"Autumn Moon" (Shiki Online Kukai, November 2005)


All Souls' Day
I open my father's
black umbrella

Petar Tchouhov (Shiki Online Kukai, December 2006)


the night after Halloween
four blackbirds settle
on the arms of a scarecrow

Joseph Baird (Modern Haiku 40:3)


All Souls' Day ...
flies in the darkened eyes
of the jack-o-lantern

Bill Pauly (Red Moon Anthology 2003)


snow fills
the pumpkin's grin
November

Ann Schwader (Shiki Online Kukai, October 2010)


Notes

(1) "Halloween," The History Channel website, http://www.history.com/topics/halloween (accessed Oct 18, 2011).

(2) Ibid.

(3) Dia de los Muertos: San Francisco, http://www.dayofthedeadsf.org/history.html (accessed October 20, 2011).

...............

Has Halloween, or Day of the Dead, or All Souls' Day spurred any haiku for you? Do any of the example haiku resonate with you? Do you have favorites from other haiku poets?

[chibi575]

Halloween...
the zombie spills
butterfingers (1)

the led (2) lit Jack'o Lantern goes green (3)

twilight (4) werewolf?... there wolf

tlick or tleat (5)... ko chan (6) plactices

footprints suddenly end... graveyard dew

All Saints (7)... the wish of every fan in New Orleans (8)

Notes:

(1) "butterfingers" is a type of candy and an idiom for lacking to get a grip
(2) "led" - abreviation for "light emitting diode" very effecient in producing light from electronic flow
(3) "green" is a coloquialism for attention to ecology
(4) "twilight" is a vampire/werewolf movie series as well as the dim sunlight before dawn and dusk
(5) "trick or treat" is a phrase used by children to get candy door to door on Halloween, but, due to the difficulty for pronouncing the English "l" sound for Asians, it is prudent to practice to train the muscles of the mouth and tongue to get the proper sound, especially for Halloween
(6) "chan" is a suffix phrase to indicate an endearing protocol for addressng young Japanese females
(7) "All Saints" is a Catholic religious observance honoring the saints on the day after Halloween
(8) "Saints" is the name of New Orleans' football team

ciao...

[DavidGrayson]

Thanks, chibi575.

Regarding the last poem: My in-laws are big Saints fans. They maintain that it's okay to skip mass for a Saint's game. Of course, there is a kind of communion at these games.

I like the humor in a lot of your work here. There's a big kitschy aspect to Halloween, which I obviously did not address. It's great you brought in this element.

Thanks for sharing!

David