Halloween, anyone? by Mari Howard (Clare Weiner)

  

Halloween seems bigger than ever, but in a secular, post-modern society, is it necessary?

If so, how? What’s it about? Why is it thought suitable for children?

Our ancient ancestors tamed scary things with myth and ritual. Halloween, with witches, ghosts, and the undead, is the festival of fear: of the unknown, of the different, as the long dark nights begin. If Halloween’s origins are from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain – a time to scare away ghosts and spirits – then why in a secular age has it become, and remained, so popular?

So, is Halloween, with ghosts and hideous zombies or ‘the un-dead’ among the popular costumes, a festival about death? Until recently, everyone knew what death was about, because they saw it. The painter Munch (famous for The Scream) was deeply affected by witnessing the deaths (from TB) of his mother and his beloved sister: he painted the scene several times, trying to make sense of it.

Now, worldwide, there is a Death Cafe Movement (apparently at least 5,900 of these existed in 2013, only a few years after the first opened in London). The founders argued that we need to take death out of its closet and talk it over, with tea, cup-cakes, and the inevitable knowledgeable experts… (Although, with Covid, our feelings may  have changed, that's not for this post - which is about festivals, why and how we keep them...)

But is Halloween really about death? The scary things our ancestors feared – ghosts and bad spirits – hasn’t society got over those imaginings? Apart from scary movies or humorous takes on witches, written as children's books. If our embodied selves are all there is, life is indeed boring and possibly purposeless, and death is an end, not the beginning of a dim, troubled half-life, neither secular people nor religious ones need to fear that evil will be let loose in a big way by Halloween. So why dress up and act out as if it will be?

We could say, that a game of scary pretence is fun?  That we like to persuade ourselves into half-belief, and find an excuse for dressing-up and indulging in pretending to be evil, like thumbing our noses at frightening stuff? 

But Halloween’s become another festival to get the consumers spending. It’s like a minor version of Christmas – decorations, costumes, even cakes, and sweets, are on sale. It’s about money. It  can be about big money - such as horror movies made especially for showing at this time (looking up 'Halloween 2021', Google immediately found what looked from the description to be a movie made for the date, just so people could experience scary entertainment.)

Add in trick or treat and it’s about threats and exploitation... even if in a small way...

It’s also about Stigma. Stigma’s as old as society: in our scientific, techno-driven, age, there’s officially no magic and no witches (at least in black raggedy garments and tall hats), no monsters or spirits, but there are Halloween costumes which exploit prejudice, or rather, stigma. Not only death, but disfigurement, deformity, mental illness, criminality, and other ‘nasties’ are there. The Halloween industry says it’s okay to mock, and to stigmatise, and encourages fear. That, I think, is very scary. 

So, maybe rather than ‘saving Christmas’, can we ‘save Halloween’, and enjoy celebrating the changing of the seasons? The festival falls at the time when darkness really sets in. To live through the darkness, we all need light: we can celebrate thankfully that we have both light and heat in our world?

Halloween is the ‘Eve’ of All Hallows, the day before the Church traditionally celebrated the lives of all those ordinary people we have loved and lost. It can be a celebration of love, instead of fear. A time to bake (as one family I know does) love heart cookies for the children to take around their neighbours as Halloween gifts. 

We can still carve pumpkin lanterns, but give them funny or friendly smiling faces. We can light candles, and put them either inside pumpkin lanterns outdoors, or in our windows. We could if we still have an open fire or a wood burning stove light the first fire of the season. We can make Pumpkin pies or fiery gingerbread people cut-out cookies. 

My acquaintance’s cookies are to illustrate God’s love: but even if you don’t believe in God, a heart cookie to remember the people you loved, and who loved you, isn’t a bad thing.