Pettit's Highland Highlights: Halloween Originated in Ireland

Dear Family and Friends,

We thought since it is Halloween we would share a little history of Halloween--at least from an Irish perspective. We often get a chuckle out of Irish pride: that products that are Irish are seemingly of best quality, such as Irish Chicken (it is actually quite good) Irish beef (not so good) Irish lamb (trying to avoid it at all lengths) Irish butter, (can't really tell the difference) Irish soda bread (very unique--- but much like banana bread with no sugar) etc. The funny one Grandpa saw this week was Irish firewood. Who knows, maybe it is more dense, or smells better, or whatever, but Irish are proud of their "products".

But they are also proud of their history and of original ideas---some of which is not very convincing. So when we heard that Halloween originated in Ireland, we didn't know if there was much to it. Then we started hearing it more and more often, and some of the tradition stories sound like it could be reality. We have told you about the very ancient burial structures and sites not far from Dublin, called Newgrange. What we heard this week is that Halloween first began on these sites. Newgrange is literally in the center of Ireland, and for some reason, on a certain night of the year, all the fires of all the land were put out. Then on the tops of the largest structure, which looks like a very flat hill, a large bonfire was lit. When that fire was seen by the next location, they lit their fire and signaled the next location in a chain reaction all across the land. (Like Lord of the Rings)   Now we haven't heard anything about bonfires being lit in these days, but we were surprised that fireworks go with Halloween. We have not seen a single bit of fireworks all through the almost year now that we have been here ---and now tonight, Halloween night, the air is popping with fireworks. It seems like a good way to carry on the bonfire signal.   Daylight savings time started yesterday, so it is also now dark at 5:00 p.m. and it is just right for good fireworks. It seems like such a sudden change from the very long summer nights.

Jack-o-lantern carving originated not with pumpkins being carved, but turnips, which are very common here, were carved to frighten away evil spirits. Turnips are large, but not as big as pumpkins and would not have been hollowed out because they are solid through like a potato.   They were carved with frightening faces and placed on the graves and ceremonial sites.  In Ireland, and England too it seems, pumpkins are not eaten much.    We made Jack-o-lantern sugar cookies (American traditional kind) and they were quite a novelty. But more of a novelty was making pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies. We cannot find any cans of pumpkin--so we had to cook from scratch and puree it. People were very reluctant to try them, and very surprised that they would be good. There was a general clamor among the older crowd to take home leftovers because they were so uniquely good. I wonder if we would figure out how to make turnip cookies if the pumpkin had not saved the day.

In YSA they carved pumpkins and it also was a real novelty---so to claim that Halloween started in Ireland, when they don't do pumpkins like we do in America, seems odd. For Halloween night English class we think we will try to do caramel apples. We have not seen them anywhere, so we will see how popular that is.

Tomorrow, the day after Halloween, is All Souls Day, or All Saints Day, and we hear that many go to church.   But today was surprisingly busy at the cemetery.   Lots of people were there putting flowers on the graves. Another bit of information is that in Brazil they do not celebrate Halloween. We heard that about 5 years ago they started it a little--but it certainly is not a big celebration. The Brazilians are excited to participate in a Halloween party.

Well, we just wanted to share all this so you can think about it as you do your very fun Halloween traditions. We will be thinking of you and how much fun you always are. We think of lots of fun memories of being with you and just those memories make it a fun holiday for us.  Tonight we were teaching with the Elders and the topic of the importance of families became a big part of the conversation. We fell so blessed to have a family that we love so much, so we wish you to Be Safe. Be Happy. Be good!

And now for the more "spiritual" part of our week.---(not Halloween spiritual) Ha Ha.--- but mission spiritual.

The week has been fairly busy because our manager from England came to spend a few days with us and do the rounds within the three areas. In one 26 hour period we had meetings with each of the stake SR committees, which meant we were really on the go. We had a meeting here one night, an early start the next day to drive to the south of Ireland for another stake committee, and then left directly to go all the way back to Dublin and on to Belfast--- the opposite direction north for the third Stake committee. And we returned back to Dublin that night. Fortunately the manager is fairly young and brought his car, so he drove and we just rode and talked about how things are going and what the priorities are for time ahead.

All three of our Stake Committee Meetings were positive and reflected a lot of progress. It has been several months since our manager was here and he was very excited about how things are going. Ireland is the most remote of all the areas for SR in the UK and Ireland Region, which are led by the two managers, and putting us here with just three Stakes to work on was an experiment that seems to have been good. Even though the area is much larger than any area except Scotland, the Church population is much smaller, so we have been able to focus more directly on the single units and help them more. The manager feels that our efforts have given us more personalized experience in all the aspects of the Initiative than anyone in the region because we were small enough to do it. We are happy to be a successful experiment.

The day the manager came, we got a call from our Mission President that was so sweet and supportive concerning the possibility of being transferred to another mission. It has been discussed off and on for a few months, but we have not known how seriously, so we have just let it stay in the "what if" category.   President Donaldson was quite certain it was cleared to happen and wanted to make sure that we would be okay. It really touched our hearts and helped us feel the love behind the decision process, which reflected for us the love of the Lord. We then talked about it with our manager, who let us know that it is actually not yet final, but that it has to be decided by the Quorum of the Twelve ---and the Mission President didn't know that when the Area Authority spoke to him.   It really has been a humbling and heartfelt experience for us to think of moving. We are not anxious to do this, but we are wanting our mission time to be used in the best possible way and we have an Irish drivers license issue coming up soon, which doesn't have an easy solution, so we realize that some change is likely. We will probably hear the final decision within 2 weeks.

In the meantime, we are working as hard as we can to continue to get SR firmly established in as many places as possible. This weekend we went north again to a new branch in the small city of Omagh. It was a delight to find this branch doing so well. They meet in a lovely chapel on the top of a small hill near the center of the city.    They were very welcoming and interested in the SR Initiative --- and they have a new missionary couple who are anxious to help get it started. We will be going back this week again to take the next steps, which is an usually fast start. We are delighted!

We are feeling very blessed to be able to teach fairly often with the Elders and Sisters. The faith and preparation of those who are investigating the Gospel is always remarkable to us. It is never an easy thing for someone to study a new religion, but it builds our testimony to see the Spirit work in their lives. Tonight we watched again the short video of Elder Bednar explaining the workings of the Spirit as compared to light. Sometimes, but quite rarely, the light is experienced as a sudden burst--like turning on a light switch. More often it seems like the dawning of the sun, growing gradually. And most often the light makes us use faith to take each step as a foggy day, not being able to see too far ahead.   We loved seeing the video again and thinking about the experiences of investigators. Especially the Brazilians are quite sensitive to the Spirit and don't seem to walk too tenuously. One sweet investigator lady said "there are no coincidences". It doesn't mean it is easy for her, but she is really aware of the light coming into her life, and we feel so blessed to see her appreciation.

The weather this week has been just wonderful. And we did get our heat fixed too!   It is fairly warm, in the low 50's, and not much rain, so it is glorious to ride across the island and see the leaves changing. The colors are gorgeous!   We remember how in the spring we recognized that the trees were planted in alternate varieties and the blossoms were different, one tree to the next. And now the color contrasts are even prettier. We see such incredibly beautiful places especially when we are driving on the small winding narrow roads to more remote places. We are usually in a hurry, so it is not super fun to drive these roads so fast, but we do appreciate the beautiful creations of Heavenly Father---and appreciate safe arrivals!

In all we are feeling very blessed. We know that whatever is ahead for us will be right and that what we have experienced so far has brought us a lot of happiness. We hope and pray that you too are feeling the blessings and happiness you need in your lives. We love you and love hearing about your lives.

Our best and lots of love to each of you!

Grandpa and Grandma
Dad and Mom
Lynne and Lanette
Elder and Sister Pettit