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PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY October 16 - 31, 2016
OPINION
Rey Fortaleza - Publisher
Carlito Pablo - Editorial Consultant
Office Add: 9955 -149th Street, Surrey, B.C. V3R 7N2
Rosette Correa - Senior Editor
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Reyfort Publishing & Entertainment
Breaking
Point
Hallowed be Thy Celebration
By Rosette Correa
Looking around the
neighborhoods
in
Surrey
with all the preparation for
Halloween, I can’t help but
remember the first time I
encountered the celebration
when I was five years old. I had
just arrived with my sister and
my mother in Rafsanjan, Iran,
where my father was hired by
then mining company Brown
and Root, to live there with him
until the copper mining project
was done in a few years until
the early 1980s.
My sister and I were sitting
in the living room, when a group
of our American classmates
came knocking at our door and
screamed, “Trick or treat?” and
were demanding that we give
them candy. We took some
apples in the kitchen and put
them in their bags, and they
looked strangely at us, then ran
off. Their parents came to the
door and asked my folks why
my sister and I weren’t out and
going out to the houses to go
trick or treating. Of course, the
custom was also strange to my
parents, as we were preparing to
pray the Rosary and Prayers for
the Dead since it was All Saints’
Day and All Souls’ Day the next
day. In a polite fashion, they
declined the invitation, and our
new American friends walked
away. Until such time that our
teachers at school explained
to us what Halloween was the
next day, my sister and I were
oblivious to the celebration and
were fascinated by the ritual of
candy-begging that went on.
My teacher invited me to a
Halloween party at her house,
where the rest of my classmates
were there, and while they all
had their ghoulish costumes
on, my mom dressed me up in a
proper Sunday dress, because I
was going to a party, and that’s
what polite little girls don for
parties, especially when invited
by your teacher. Despite the
culture shock on my part, and
the snickers and ridiculing that
followed when my classmates
saw what I had on, I enjoyed
bobbing for apples and taking
some caramel candy shaped
like pumpkins home, to the
consternation of my parents,
who thought I had taken the
candy from my teacher’s
house without her permission.
In spite of the protestations,
my parents never allowed me
and my sister to go trick or
treating or attend Halloween
parties again, perhaps because
of the gluttony and total
disregard for the solemnity of
the remembrance of the saints
and past relatives that was
overshadowed by the entire
celebration of it.
As a parent, I totally
understand
my
parents
sentiments now. In a world
where children are faced with
all materialism and the idea of
selfishness, Halloween doesn’t
seem to be a great way to
teach our children prudence,
12th and
Cambie
called names because of my
stand against Halloween, there
is a merit to my diatribe. As the
end of the month approaches
in the Philippines, candles and
flowers fill the streets in Quiapo
and Divisoria, and people flock
to these places to get the best
to adorn the crypts, niches and
plots of their dead loved