Like it or not Halloween has become a global holiday. Every year, while dozens complain on Twitter about the fact that this is an American occasion, South African neighbourhoods organise trick-or-treats and clubs, bars and schools put on spooky Halloween events. With a small child of my own, I can see the joy the holiday brings and have never been one of the Halloween nay-sayers. I am, therefore, more than happy to dress up and walk the streets for sugar (a phrase that used to allude to prostitution).
But I need to ask myself, is there something our extremely commercial view of Halloween is forgetting? In our rush to make this holiday about children, have we forgotten that on the night of the 31st of October, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred and ghosts walk the earth? Have we forgotten the true, spiritual intent of the day, is to survive the night of terror the shambling dead hope to visit upon our realm and to scare them back into the shadows?
Worse yet, are the Karens right? Are we collapsing the very structure and foundation of our society by dressing up with our kids and letting them eat a few sweets? Is all the sweet consumption simply a ploy by “Big-dentist”? And is costume-wearing simply another attempt by drag acts to enslave the minds of our kids?
Given the rate at which Halloween popularity is growing every year we are bound to find out. Perhaps, the Twitter complainers are right and we will all call down an apocalypse upon ourselves through our heathen rites? Maybe we don’t need the extra expense when we should be saving for Christmas? But maybe, just maybe, what other people do to take their minds off the constant desperate anxiety of existence has nothing to do with those who aren’t participating, and Halloween in SA is just another thing the uninvolved need to keep their noses out of. Perhaps we will never know.
