Howard's Hallowe'en

Hallow's Eve, or the evening before All Saints' Day, is another example of a (Christian) festivity where the evening before the event has become at least as important as the day itself. (It took me many years to realise that St. Nicholas' day is actually the 6th of December.) The tradition of lanterns, spooky disguises and horror stories is said to have descended from much older (pagan) Celtic rites, possibly involving a celebration of the harvest.

As I have announced in several previous posts, I had planned to visit Castle Howard at this occasion, to enjoy the "Hallowe'en Spectacular" and take advantage of the occasion to see it at its full glory rather than mistaking the gatehouse for the castle. I convinced Adolfo and his girlfriend Inma to join me. Unfortunately, other group members who might have been interested had arranged alternative ways to celebrate the harvest.

Adolfo, Inma and the rented car

Since the bicycle was out of the question as a mode of transport, this involved renting a car and driving there. The logistics were a bit complicated since in order to get to the rental company the bicycle was still the best option, after which I faced the dual parking problem of getting rid of my bike somewhere and parking the car in the vicinity of the university, who do everything in their power to prevent that sort of thing. No matter, at 16:00 we joined the busy traffic leaving York in a northerly direction (driving on the wrong side of the road all the time) and after a smooth trip arrived at the castle right at the beginning of the event.

The real Castle Howard; film location of
Brideshead Revisited, though probably lighted differently

With hindsight, our timing was a bit of a mistake. It did allow us to see the castle in what remained of the daylight, but the delightful-sounding programme actually did not have enough to offer to pass the time until the main event, a horse-riding show, was to take place at 19:30. It was not very cold but it was very windy, and occasionally somewhat rainy. The castle itself was closed to visitors at this time, but they had dressed up the extensive grounds with lots of pumpkins, lighted up the statues and fountain in creative ways, there were some stalls with attractions aimed at the level of five-to-ten-year-olds, there was a contest of some very creatively home-carved pumpkins, there were jugglers and firebreathers, lots of appropriately dressed-up visitors, and there was a hamburger stand. The latter managed to keep us in line for 45 minutes, by which time the wind had won out over the temperature and succeeded in cooling us down thoroughly.

The horse-riding show was nicely done. (No pictures I'm afraid, way becond my phone's capabilities.) I would probably not have used the word "spectacular" myself, but with the backdrop of the castle it made for a memorable 45 minutes. They had dressed it up in a story about a royal wedding gone wrong: zombies and a minotaur (sic) played a major role, there was sword-fighting as well as some bouts of more modern martial arts, all weaved together by a rather good storyteller. The horse-riding itself was actually excellent; I personally have some interesting experiences trying to stay in the saddle of a galloping horse, doing so upside town, backwards, jumping off and on, or running beside the horse are not things that would occur to me as worth contemplating.

Of course, as such things go, afterwards we all thought it had been a worthwhile experience. We found our way back to York in good time (despite the fact that it took me several tries to find the right setting for the car's headlights, which earned us some modern-day light signals on the highway) and only took one wrong turn, thanks to which we ended up on the touristic route through the old town rather than the somewhat shorter and more convenient one straight to the university. Even the bike was where I left it. Back in the studio my body decided that it was still on Euopean summer time and quickly pulled the curtains on me.