CALLS TO BAN HALLOWEEN
AGAIN
"The worship of
the dark mystical force Satan and the glorification of the
dark Celtic death
tradition .... Halloween has all the characteristics of a
religion aimed at
destroying traditional values." This opinion is not that
of some fanatical sect
or psychiatric patient expressing delusions but a
member of the Russian
Duma who has recently requested that the Minister
of Education, Olga
Vasilyevoi, do everything in her power to prevent the
celebration of
Halloween in school by taking disciplinary measures.
For the past twenty
years calls for banning Halloween in Russia have
fallen on deaf ears.
There is currently no legislative project or document
being drafted by
members of the Russian parliament to ban Halloween.
The Russian Minister
of Education has not at present the power to enforce a ban
on how Russian schools
choose to confront Halloween.
You would have to
specify concretely what 'celebrating' Halloween amounts
to! Russian English
teachers often include lessons not only about the
English language but
the customs and traditions associated with it. Just
because a teacher
offers a talk about Halloween does not mean he is
promoting or preaching
some dark religion. In fact, Halloween does not
have the
characteristics of a dark religion. Unfortunately, extreme Russian
politicians fail to make
a distinction between celebrate and preach, or
acting out a role and
worshiping something.
Is Halloween actually
widely celebrated in Russia? And what exactly
is Halloween? The
vast majority of Folklorists trace back the origins of
Halloween to the Scots
and the Irish Celts. In England, it was only largely
celebrated during the
19th century. It took off in America mainly due to
the influence of Irish
and Scottish Immigrants. The Scottish poet Robert
Burns wrote a poem titled Halloween in the late 18th century.
Halloween or Samhain,
which takes place on the 31st of October, marks
the beginning of the
Celtic New Year. At this time, the thin walls between
the living and the
dead broke down and all kinds of ghosts and spirits in
limbo surfaced in the
world of the living. While the living were obliged to
be hospitable to the
dead by inviting them to their homes for a meal,
precautions had to be
taken against embittered evil spirits who could
inflict harm on the
living. As one Irish storyteller told the folklorist Eddie
Lenihan: "
Everyone knows that there are two kinds of spirits. Those
who simply want you to
light candles for them in church and your prayers
and those who were
blamed for the plane disasters experienced by the
most careful
pilots." But Halloween was largely a time for remembering and
commemorating the
dead. It is not about worshiping evil spirits or Satan.
In any case, we don't
know very much about the Celts own religion other
than the odd fragments
such as they located the soul in the head, cut off
the heads of their
enemies as a sign of respect as well as a trophy and
had priests called
Druids of whose beliefs we have scant evidence of. We
have such limited
knowledge of their religion it is impossible to reconstruct
it. The New Age belief
about the Druids is predominantly a modern invention
constructed from many
kinds of religions. Of course, the Catholic religion
celebrates All Saints
Day on the 1st of November followed by All Souls Day
on the 2nd of November. Is there any harm in remembering the dead souls
of your friends and
family on such days? Even the Orthodox religion has
one day of the week
set aside for remembering the dead which is Saturday.
Is the Orthodox church
going to ban this very day?
Now, Halloween,
instead of remembrance of the dead seems to have become
trivialized and
reduced as a carnival where people indulge in fancy dress
parties, carving pumpkin
lanterns with faces and going around houses singing
'trick or treat '.
People also tend to watch horror movies and tell ghost stories.
In 2012, a Russian
survey found only one in twenty celebrated Halloween.
However, due to the
rising influence of social networks the number of people
celebrating Halloween
may have mushroomed. Yet the popularity is largely
confined to young
people. Yes, some schools encourage the celebration of
Halloween to encourage
lively interest in their students of English. But they
are not preaching or
encouraging people to become evil. At those fancy dress
parties, a favorite
costume is not a witch but of marvel comic heroes such as
Batman or Spider man. I was asked to have a talk on Halloween at an
English language
company Cherry Lane. One student Yelena told me her
five year son likes to
dress up in a skeleton suit and thinks that Halloween
may have become
popular over the past five years.
If Halloween is
popular among restaurants and cafes it is not motivated
by worshiping the
Devil or evil spirits but more likely, money. Halloween
represents a convenient
time to sell fancy dress costumes or some exotic
gifts such as brooms
or odd hats. Restaurants can do lucrative business.
This is far cry from
the time, when in late 19th century, in parts of Ireland,
the Irish
storyteller Lenihan told me that, "People were terrified of going out
of their houses
during Halloween in case they were preyed upon by evil
spirits".
Perhaps the most
redeeming aspect of Halloween is the storytelling which
comes with it. People
often adore telling or listening to a great story especially
if it is told by a
brilliant storyteller. Storytelling encourages children to be
brave and adventurous
with new words and not be afraid of playing with them
in novel ways. I was
invited to a storytelling session at a bookshop in Moscow
called Locus Solus,
where the theme was 'An Evening of Horror Stories'.
One of the audience ,
a young girl , was dawning the costume of a witch
similar to the film
'The Wizard of Oz '. At this session, guests took turns in
singing songs , poems
or narrating ghost stories. Anna Kogeteva told stories
about strange
experiences during her youth, Svetlana Shamanina recalled how
her grandmother's
dacha was haunted by a noisy spirit which disturbed their
peace by making the
room very cold or opening doors all the time. A very
accomplished
storyteller called Igor told a very scary story about how a Russian
murdered his wife and
was tormented by her spirit after her death. He was so
disturbed by her
spirit that he went to the Russian police to confess the murder.
Igor assured us that
it was a real story. He later sang an old English Folk song
Scarborough Fair and
offered an intriguing interpretation of the song which sounds
more like a horror
story than just a pleasant melody.
Halloween is most
likely to rise in popularity simply because Russians are fascinated
by monsters, and
horror stories about vampires and ghosts. They also take a deep
interest in death and
the afterlife. Just read Joseph Brodsky's poetry and you find
that he was obsessed
with death. And people can mark Halloween in different
ways such as fancy
dress parties, games, cooking meals and storytelling. But
it should be viewed as
a predominantly innocuous activity. It is mainly without
malice.
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