SCHOLARSHIP DAY 63: Spooky Goings On in Fairbanks- "Happy Halloween" from Alaska

Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,
Voices whisper in the trees, "Tonight is Halloween!
-Dexter Kozen-

 

 

It would be my first Halloween here in America, and for that matter, my first Halloween in another country other than England, so I was curious today, as to whether celebrations would be any different from what I have observed these last 18 years, back in Britain. The trouble with this, though, comes with not keeping in touch with current British Halloween traditions. I think the one year I actually went 'Trick or Treating', it was the other side of the millenium, so as you can see, I am not very in-keeping when it comes to this sort of thing. Still, today, I dedicated my time to seek the 'American' way; to spot the similarities and to discover the differences with the way October 31st is dealt with over here.

 

Fairbanks is known, somewhat, for the stillness of its air. A slight wind is noticeable therefore, especially if it's a -10 degrees C breeze, and it was this very breeze that seemed to follow me everywhere I went today. Today was, by far, the windiest day I have experienced here in Fairbanks so far. Powdery snow that had just dusted buildings was being dispersed violently off buildings as if being controlled by an unidentifiable life-force; large and perhaps ghostly clouds of this fine snow would circulate the air in a dance, fall to the ground and continue a sinuous journey across the surface, until the particles became unconceivable by sight. It may just be a coincidence, but perhaps these ephemeral displays were a message from the spirits.

 

 

This wasn't just the only thing I noticed in the air. I also saw many more Ravens than usual today; perhaps this was just a result of being extra-observant, but it seemed like everywhere I went, there was one watching me arrive. Above the university arts building, a conspiracy of Ravens were flying, (that is, by the way, the collective noun for them!) Ravens, from my many many concentrated and in depth minutes of research, are thought to be birds of ill-omen, and so I ask again: coincidence or part of Nature's celebration of Halloween?

 

 

Well, the Geographical Institute was holding many of the universities events with regard to that of spook and mystery today. I had regrettably missed the pumpkin carving contest that was held yesterday, but this afternoon, the public were invited into the campus to go 'trick or treating' in the GI offices. The staff had actually done a good job with the decorations; some rooms were 'done up' in cobwebs and plastic spiders, adorned with ghosty stickers and embellished with skulls. So far, not that very different to the British way.

 

 

I suppose what is different from Britain, is the time that celebrations are being held. Halloween always, for me anway, seemed like a one night thing back in England. A few hours of spook, and then you'd remove your costumes and store them up in the loft until the next year. Here, Halloween celebrations have been going on for what seems like weeks, and today, celebrations occured pretty much throughout the whole day. People don't seem that bothered with wearing their costumes in broad daylight either, and some of them who eventhough don't intend in 'trick or treating', still wear costumes when they go out. In the University magazine Sunstar the editor writes in a column "there is always someone with a camera behind you" and for these two individuals, that person was an innocent British tourist!

 

 

 

Later this afternoon, I attended a public lecture by a professor of Biology, here in the University of Fairbanks, Dr Michael B Harris. The title of the lecture was 'Zombies: Pysiology of the Undead' and with this title, the lecture room attracted an expected hundred or so audience. Dr Harris is, as I would say, a card! He entered the room wearing a white jacket, stained in a rich red paint in various places, and immediatly grabbed the audience's attention. He talked quickly, perhaps a little too quick at some points, but got quite a lot of terminology in a short space of time. His main point was that Zombies would have an anatomy similar to that of a mammal, but a metabolism of a reptile, and would be best killed by striking the head, rather than the heart. How he worked all of this out, I will never know, but I got the feeling that his students, after being subjected to his crazy approach to Biology, were probably just as wacky as he is.

 

Dexter Kozen's words on Halloween in the beginning remind us that the world is full of unexplained things. Here in America, it seems that Halloween means something different for everyone. For the kids, it's a chance to wear that costume they've been dying to wear for a whole year. For the parents, it's another photo for the 'Growing Up Album' and a chance to have a guiltless indulgent nibble on an array of confectionary. As Joe, here at the hostel said to me tonight, "The best thing about Halloween is the left over candy!" As I type this, in the warm and dry, without embarrasing myself in a nutty costume, chewing on a candy bar, I'm beginning to think he maybe right!