The Final Hallow’s Eve

Halloween is largely celebrated in mostly advanced cities in the world I noticed. They have the guts or the appetite to do so. They have money to dress up for fun and party to commemorate the sacredness of death and of the people who have died; the saints. They would know why and how to celebrate the end of Harvest season.  I for one, although my brother dresses up as the Batman as much as this holiday allows (not entirely knowing what it’s for) don’t really care for it. I haven't personally celebrated it yet. I’m not a partygoer and I don’t know what it’s entirely for, myself. All I know is I don’t like people wearing scary stuff. Horror has never been my fave genre in film, as in life. So my question every Halloween is aren’t you sick of it yet? Watching the news, watching people celebrate it dressed up as clowns, Freddie Krueger, a fairy, Barbie. It’s not costume envy as much as holiday disgust. It’s just not my kind of thing.

This year though, the winds have changed as I have been in acute awareness of its meaning. Just by googling it, I know that it is a a pagan religious celebration to welcome the harvest at the end of Summer when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts that actually has its roots with the Celts. Who am I to argue with tradition?

I just live day to day in a controlled, even pace with really no special day to look forward to because all these traditions and observances I observe on a daily basis. I think (a lot about things) therefore I eliminate unwanted and unnecessary thought. Also, I work in my own schedule with no fixed working grind and no holidays to enjoy. The Philippines is not necessarily a rich country by any means. In fact, it is one of the poorest nations on Earth. I do not shun the face of poverty as much as I hate the idea of a poor spirit. Everytime I see a poor person in the street, a street beggar, I am reminded of the horrors of poverty; an incompetent government, a willing sacrifice. I don’t need to see a horror film because I see horror in the face of my fellow countrymen, deprived of basic human needs…housing, a decent meal, a warm loving home, clothes. Halloween, or the “face” of it is etched in their faces. If I want to be spooked or enjoy a good scare, I simply go out and I see it welcoming me in every corner in this city. It’s every man for himself here and I don’t really need to be reminded, especially by the person closest to me by physical proximity; the person who used to be a teacher, gone rogue. He is now my everyday scare.

By now, after clear cries of help in its direction and all I keep getting in equal return is scorn, sounds of distant fury and destruction in its wake, I have but come to a conclusion that the four massive tv buildings constructed by the Iglesia ni Kristo just outside our neighborhood subdivision, literally a stone’s throw away, is the landmark of the devil itself, a gift from the almighty pagan god they call Kristo. From a social perspective, they claim to “discipline” and educate the poor, spiritually-hungry masses of the Philippines, their claim to fame. From a practical point of view, they influence the outcomes of national elections and elected officials for their own personal growth and gain, nothing new in the world stage of religious sects. From my personal pov, they’re nothing but Monsters INC and Kristo is Boo’s “monitor lizard”,  the one pervasive monster she was terrified of. In my mind, these buildings are the cameras behind my back, the long-distance CCTVs that baby monitors my every move and then attacks at every inopportune moment of my exact waking hours. It is relentless in its pursuit to make my personal domain, my so-called sacred aria a hellish place. On the other hand, it is my so-called life’s window to the world, only with it being the one with the peeping lens and me being kept completely in the dark. It’s been a one-way road to the galaxy so far because how do you battle an unwanted highway construction by yourself? Normally, one would have no choice but to yield. But maybe not. I am all alone but not ineffective, at least not as socially ineffective as they have been. I believe that my smallest acts create ripples in the universe.

So, as a person who has exponentially improved in a matter of a few years commencing during the pandemic, I feel like a human juggernaut (and not in a bad way) who continues to expand and move on in life. Tonight, All Hallow’s Eve, I am marking it as a day of commemoration of what is to be a juncture in this collective narrative we all share, a turning point, a turning of the tide. You alone can make a change. You alone can decide your fate. I’m talking to myself apparently as these people never listen nor think for themselves and at this point, since they really don’t take anything I say or do seriously, I don’t expect them to. I fully take matters into my own hands and I disavow their presence in my life. I reject their advocacy. I declare that Halloween, Philippine Style ends tonight once and for all. There is no end of harvest to celebrate here. There is hardly any harvest left. The Philippines or what Iglesia ni Kristo embodies has lost its meaning entire. I just toppled their ideological tower. I have mentally and spiritually pulverised the four concrete buildings strategically and disturbingly built next to our comparatively inferior-sized house. From this day forward, these so-called followers of Kristo will look up to me from a distance and finally know their true master and by the time they actually cave in on our house, I would have transported myself to my own chosen destination, a land of never-ending dreams, free from fear and caution and unnecessary submission. It is my decision. It is my final act.

You don’t have to believe me. Just ogle in disbelief.