It's almost Halloween!
…and it isn't part of my culture. It's only recently started to become a “novelty thing” in Greece, and we totally don't quite get it the way people who actually celebrate it likely do. So I don't want to talk about Halloween per se, but rather what I've considered it to be as an outsider looking in. And for me, Halloween is not about death. But it is all about fear of death.
In social sciences it's generally known that a visceral, primal way of coping with some kind of fear is to become it- put on a mask representing it. Create a ritual appeasing it while wearing its symbols. Make it happen in a controlled, safe environment so it doesn't happen in the real world. Diffuse its power by giving it attention in its “tamer” form, so it doesn't come at you full force.
We disguise ourselves with images of horror, of death, of terror, of situations we normally fear and wish we never encounter. And while there is that narrow group of people who put on the costume of a serial killer because they would love to be associated or even BE them, but most people do it in that other function I mentioned.
It's all within our relationship with death which, again, is really our relationship with the great unknown. The dark void for which we're unable to get answers since it's beyond the scope of our existence. The threat of nothingness and the threat of somethingness.
And it's not just death. Death is just the extreme version of change. Any event that completely changes our lives (for the better or the worse, it doesn't matter) carries the same level of emotional charge, intimidation, even fear, despite any excitement and dire wishing for it that we may be harboring.
Of course, for kids it's just dressup day! All of this goes for the adults that observe Halloween even by putting on Hocus Pocus every year.
Bottom line, psychology says that there is no person that doesn't fear death, even if they think they don't. And that's perfect, because it helps survival, creativity, and adrenaline to rush. What people can do regarding their relationship with death is develop a healthy approach to it. By that I mean an understanding that it's all right not to know. It's alright to have beliefs and ascribe to them, and it's alright to make your peace with it so that the threat and fear it brings about are on a manageable level.
Halloween is a huge death and horror party from what I have garnered, and it's a great way to celebrate life and be okay with death. Step out of your skin if you want, and be larger than life and larger than death, or don't, and have fun watching others do it. All of it works!
Happy Halloween!
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InkyMoondrop
Our Relationship With Death
Tantz_Aerine at 12:00AM, Oct. 29, 2022
8 likes!
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TheJagged at 1:13PM, Oct. 31, 2022
Today i learned: Hybristophilia is the medical term for "chicks dig bad boys"
hushicho at 7:28PM, Oct. 29, 2022
Psychology says a lot of things that are reductive and not strictly true, and it's usually inaccurate to make blanket statements without qualification. But I do think it's an overall healthy and nice thing to acknowledge these aspects of the cosmic whatever-it-is. Might as well. Worrying about it is a colossal waste of time.
PaulEberhardt at 6:30AM, Oct. 29, 2022
Well, here in Northern Germany, that day is called Reformation Day and we didn't even get a day off until 2018. However the commercialised spooky fun with dressing up and getting sweets unsurprisingly beats remembering a post-medieval theologian with the kids. At least we don't have to be envious of the catholic South with their getting a day off on All Hallows any more, like my generation used to be.
Banes at 4:46AM, Oct. 29, 2022
Perhaps we all fear death, if only on a deep, unconscious level. But watching Hocus Pocus every year? THAT'S a frightening thought!
Ironscarf at 4:41AM, Oct. 29, 2022
Samhain, the only one of our pagan festivals Christianity wasn't able to rebrand. The attempt was made with All Saints' Day or All Hallows Eve, but only the name stuck. It's the point where the veil between life and death falls, allowing the spirits to wreak havoc, but also giving us insights into what the future might bring. It's mostly just a commercialised festival of fun now and it's themes are a genre enjoyed all year round, but the fact it's survived at all is interesting. A death party is probably a good thing for our mental health especially as we are insulated from the dead for the most part now.
KAM at 3:39AM, Oct. 29, 2022
Years ago I was looking up information on Halloween in America and if I remember correctly it was somewhere around the 1870s when communities began laying down the law on what was acceptable and not acceptable. I think prior to this there was more serious property damage than just pranks and a lot of what became the traditional (to me) dressing up in costumes and Trick or Treating the neighbors came out of this community movement. I guess some would argue a sanitizing of the scarier elements while allowing for kids to have fun in ways that don't have serious consequences.
InkyMoondrop at 10:58AM, Oct. 28, 2022
Interesting, thanks for sharing! We don't really celebrate Halloween where I live (there are of course decorations in the shops and costume parties in dance clubs, partially aimed at tourists, but it's not a tradition here to trick or treat). I was bummed out by this as a kid, children want to have fun, not go to the cemetery to watch their parents wallow in memories tainted by grief. But I do find the different cultural aspects of our relationship with death and people's differing coping mechanisms to be fascinating and now that I'm grown up, it doesn't need to be Halloween to have a costume party with grim themes (last time we tried dressing up as famous people who died, indicating how the end reached them, I was David Foster Wallace, too bad nobody took on David Carradine). Last, but not least: I think traditions are important, but since most of them are largely about consumerism and social pressure, I think I'll start more personal family traditions when I get there.