A Beiruti Halloween: Witches, Warlocks, and Black Cats

BEIRUT: Halloween is quite the popular holiday around the globe during which toddlers, teenagers, and adults get to dress up as their favorite characters.

Whether it's an anime hero, a Disney character, a comic villain, or a made up costume; for boys and girls in particullar a camouflaged trick or treat session is essential to render the festivities complete.

Halloween got its name from All Hallows' Eve, also known as All Saints' Day. In 1000 A.D. Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV aimed at replacing the pagan Samhain harvest festivals with the Christian festival of All Saints' Day by moving it from May to November 1st.

Samhain (pronounced 'sah-win') which means 'summer's end', is a Celtic festival that happened around 2000 years ago on November 1st. The Celts, who occupied the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, believed that a celebration including bonfires and costumes on the day that marked the end of summer and harvest would provide a smoother contact with the spirits of the dead since the gates between our world and theirs would open.

As for trick or treating, it dates back to the early days of All Saints' Day when the poor would roam the streets knocking the doors of the rich asking for food in exchange of prayers for the family's dead spirits.

Carved pumpkins, or Jack O'Lanterns as they are now known by, is the story of an Irish man called Stingy Jack. The tale goes as follows, Stingy Jack fooled the devil twice, once by obliging the devil to shape-shift into a coin to pay with but instead decided to keep the coin in his pocket next to a cross so that the devil wouldn't be able to shift back. The second time was after the man freed the devil and asked him to fetch a fruit from a high tree, once the devil had climbed, Jack drew a cross on the tree to lock the devil up until he promised not to collect Jack's soul when he's dead and not to bother him for ten years.

When Stingy Jack died, both God and the devil denied Jack from entering heaven and hell. He was sentenced to roam earth with a burning coal inside a carved-out turnip. It was since called Jack of the Lantern or Jack O'Latern, and was adopted as a sign to cast away all maleficent spirits. When Irish immigrants went to America, they brought the tradition with them; the turnip was replaced with pumpkins for they were larger, easier to carve, and plentiful there.

Et voilà, all things came together to form the contemporary Halloween that we know; developed to please all ages with its myriad activities and abundance of creativity on that night.

This year, and just like every other year, Beirut celebrates this sorcerous evening in disguise. Workshops to help you concoct eerie sweets, design your own costume, and carve peculiar looking pumpkins are aplenty around the city. 'Say It With Flowers' hosted a pumpkin carving Halloween workshop, while 'Laminas Kitchen' handled a "frightful and tasty" Halloween-themed cupcakes session.

And if you're not the creative-handy kind of person, parties are all around to ensure a good night of intriquing  drinks and shows (P.S. Halloween outfits are mandatory to keep the spirit(s) alive.)

"Halloween was awesome this year. I spent Saturday night walking around Mar Mikhael with my friends," said Yara Sleiman, a Halloween enthusiast. With the right face-paint on, she looked like from another world. 

"What I like about this holiday is the costumes and how it brings people together. You can take pictures with random people because of their amazing creative outfits and it's considered normal," Sleiman added.

From 'Decadeath' to 'A Tinder Horror Story', the promising weekend was filled with themed parties for adults, and even more for kids who wait for this celebration to make the best out of an allowed sugar-rush. 'Oliver's Kitchen' went literary with its 'Halloween Storytime Party' for the little ones, while 'Treasure Island' organized a two-hour activity-filled session with prizes for best costumes and a cookie-decorating workshop. With regard to the geeks of Lebanon who might not fancy a loud evening, 'Joon on the Moon' had a 'Leb Geek's Trick or Treat'soirée.

"I was disguised as a Hipster this year. We had a great time my friends and I at the RAW nightclub," Jad Rehaoui, another Halloween fan, said.

"To me, Halloween is more about a masquerade where you get to be someone else for one night -- and get away with it," Rehaoui added with a smile.

A night during which one can be anyone (or anything for that matter) is a hailed night, what if this night happens to have a doppelgänger, especially in Lebanon?

Saint Barbara's day falls on December the 4th, it's about a pagan girl named Barbara who escaped her father after he learned her conversion to Christianity. She disguised herself with several masks and costumes so that she wouldn't be recognized and dragged back to her father. She was later tortured and beheaded for her treason after being captured. Many traditions were transferred from Halloween to Saint Barbara's day ever since.

While some people decided to buy their costumes, others went to the Web and DYI-ed it –which proved to be less costly.

"I googled how to make liquid latex and it only cost $5, add some regular face-paint makeup and some fake blood, it all adds up to cost less than any uniform you buy," commented Sleiman on how expensive it is to go to a makeup artist who will take up to $100.

But expense or not, it's a night of theater, where there are a thousands parts to play, and many willing celebrants to play them, all for one magical evening......