I understand the origins of that end of October event that is Halloween. As a Catholic, on the last day of October, we celebrate "All Soul's Day". It is the day on which we pray for the dead, whom we consider part of the universal Church. The next day, November 1, is "All Saint's Day". The tradition of the "Day of the Dead" is well known, and related, also, to this remembrance of the dead and a celebration of the lives who touched us.
Maybe it has happened in other parts of the country, but in Los Angeles in any case, it seems that the secular version of this "Holy Day", the holiday (the secular derivation of the religious word) has become a peculiar obsession. I say, maybe it has happened in other parts of the country, because at least when I was a kid, Halloween was strictly for the kids, and it was less about the scary stuff (although obviously the scary stuff was a thread) than about going from door to door (with your parents and to people you knew) and getting candy. In my day, princess costumes were particularly favored by children, the days of Cinderella being very prominent. Oh, yes, there were ghosts, and we all had seen Frankenstein (the original Boris Karloff one and the knock offs by people like Abbott and Costello), but everyone kind of knew this was play for anyone under age 10.
In my neighborhood, which is a mix of adults and religious Jewish families, I have never seen kids go from door to door for the candy. What I have noticed are the lawns of adult inhabitants filled up to the brim with every horrible dead formerly human thing. Vampires, and ghouls amid pounds of fake webs. Arms strewn about. Hands coming out of the ground. In one neighborhood, there were blowup ghouls riding on motorcycles.
I am not sure what this current fascination with the dead and the undead is, but it seems way out of proportion to being a grown-up. I know. My opinion. Just because you have never been keen to dress up as Dracula. . . .Well, yep, that's what I am expressing. An opinion.
Do we not see enough death that we need to enshrine it on our lawns in ghastly displays? Or is it a way of warding off the evil eye? If I indulge in all of this, do I somehow get to spare myself from becoming one of the dead? In case someone thinks that, no, you don't.
I heard that this week-end, the latest of the Paranormal Activity movies outgrossed the opening for any horror film ever. It was like THE movie to go see. I don't know about you, but even with my belief in the ultimate Grace of Heaven, the idea of dying, well more, the how of the dying than the dying itself, is scary enough. When I was a kid, I still remember rising above my principles and dabbling with my friends with a ouija board. Gotta tell you, that was the first, and last time. I could feel the evil. And I wanted far away from it. And I did experience, in a friend's home, what I will believe to my own last breath, was a malevolent spirit. Why then do so many want to dress up as the dead, or sit in front of a screen watching parts of bodies being torn off. Don't we get enough of that in real life, like, for example, Libya in recent days?
I am really not throwing stones. I just don't get it. It seems that we are no longer able to differentiate the fictional deaths from the non-fictional versions. And people don't believe someone died, like Mr. Ghadafi, even though his beating, dragging and execution (deserved or otherwise) by his former people was all over any form of broadcast source.
I don't know, there is something chilling to me, and not in the intended sense, about the obsession of Halloween other than the "trick or treat" variety of five year olds. Do we really think we can safely play with the "other side". I guess if you don't believe in the "other side" and I mean all the good and the bad of it, like if you don't believe in demons, you figure, hey what's the harm? But what if there are forces that can harm us and our little forays are a path to our literal and figurative soul destruction? Well, there are so many contingencies. If you don't believe in a soul, there is no harm. Of course, lately, it has been repeating in my brain that our belief is not the arbiter of reality. I know, there are those who dispute that. Dispute away. Time or eternity will tell as to the existence of objecctive and greater forces than ourselves. Me, that's my trend.
When you go out and buy that bloody plastic scar for your face for your zombie costume, consider what a real body looks like after it has been dispatched and torn. The thing we do for fun mimics something pretty horrible. Then why do we?
Just something to ponder. We have a longer time to ponder it now, as the Halloween costumes and goodies are advertised and sold months in advance of the actual day.
For my part, I cannot wait till this holiday is over. But I certainly wish the best to those of you who are celebrating it in its gloriously gooey gore . Well, I still like the candy, I have to admit.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
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