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HALLOWEEN IN IBIZA

31 octubre, 2008 0 Comments

Halloween means “All hallow’s eve”, which comes from old English and which means “the eve of all Saints’ day”. It is well known for the emptied out pumpkins which are sculpted into the shapes of faces which contain either a candle or a lantern on the inside and are placed in doorways or windows. In Ibiza it is becoming more and more accepted and is celebrated in a festive and fun atmosphere…

This tradition is spreading across the island, very much due to the influence of movies, and is celebrated with ‘horror night’ parties, witches and ghosts displayed in different shops and bars and more or less horrific fancy dress costumes. Diverse traditions meet, are mixed and mutually influence one another on this last night of October, when paganism returns.
As ibiza-secrets explains, the celebration of Halloween dates back to the Celtic druids, pagan priests who worshiped trees, especially oaks. They believed in the immortality of the soul, which would occupy another individual on abandoning the body at the moment of death, but that would return to its original home to ask for food from all who bore it debts, who had the obligation to make provisions in ready.
For the Christian religion the feast of All Saints ’ Day was instituted by Saint Odile, a Benedictine monk and the fifth Bishop of Cluny in France, on the 31^st October of the year 998. On reaching the millenary anniversary of this festivity, the Pope John Paul II reminded the faithful that “Saint Odile wanted to persuade his monks to pray in a special way for the souls of the dead. From the Bishop of Cluny this habit of interceding solemnly for the dead began to extend throughout the Christian world and ended up becoming what Saint Odile called “The Feast of the Dead”, still celebrated vigorously in the Universal Church”.
In Spain this Holy costume, which has been introduced into the cultural habits, is still celebrated on this night and often features the performance of a play involving the myth of Don Juan Tenorio. It was precisely this character, “the joker of Seville or the stone guest”, created by the Spanish monk poet and dramatist Tirso de Molina, who would dare to go to the cemetery on this night, to evoke the souls of all who had fallen victim to his sword or of his selfish possessiveness.
In Ibiza on all Saints’ day, it is still traditional to visit the cemeteries, the tombs are tidied and decorated with flowers, deceased family members are remembered and prayed for and at home special sweet cakes are eaten, made especially for the occasion, such as buñuelos and panallets.
MORE INFO: www.ibiza-secrets.com