The dark side
As October rolls around, comes the question "Can we go trick-or-treating on Halloween?". Most years (if we were not entertaining visitors or away on holiday) we would then go through the fun (sometimes logistically challenging) question of what character they would dress up as on that night. Over the years, we've done pirates, Harry Potter, a ghost, witches, dragon and Wednesday Addams.
For the kids, their primary motivation was the lollies and treats. And I didn't begrudge them this annual indulgence. I was happy to participate in the community indulgence of all the neighbourhood children as well. My trusty witch's cauldron would make it's annual appearance, filled with lollies and treats ready for happy trick-or-treaters that came to our doorstep.
I reflected that among all the celebrations and festivals throughout the year, Halloween was actually the most community oriented one of them all. So many households and families eagerly joining in the fun of enjoying the pageantry and treats together. Some households really would go all out decking their house in spooky decorations and ghoulish characters, simply for the joy and fun of it.
A decade ago, I would not have looked upon Halloween with the same eyes.
Back then, my views on Halloween was coloured by my Christian worldview.
I would have seen elements of spiritual darkness behind the celebration. I would have seen the laughter and fun as misguided and flirting with danger. There was a hidden malevolence overshadowing everything. Demonic. Unholy. Satanic. Dark. Evil.
This Halloween, I headed out with Grace to go trick-or-treating around the neighbourhood. Apart from the usual cauldrons and tubs of lollies set out, it was also entertaining to check out the various houses decked out in Halloween decor. Some households really put amazing effort into it and went all out. They were truly a sight to behold.
Some displays were quite weird and bizarre.
I found a particular display of rotiserrie dolls roasting over a barbecue oddly fascinating in an arthouse-horror sort of way.
I shared the image on our family group chat, speficically tagging my youngest brother with whom I shared an appreciation of the dark comedy, horror or Tarantino-esque genres.
I was not prepared for the rest of my family members' responses.
Too graphic.
Promoting infacticide.
Normalising blood and gore.
Desensitising children to violence.
So I posed this question for discussion about my own two children: Nathan and Grace enjoy the fun side of Halloween. Would you consider them as being desensitised to violence in real life?
They had no answer to my question.
So I said I would ask Nathan and Grace themselves what they thought. They were, as always, wonderfully candid and insightful in their answer.
In essence, their response was: It's very clear that the Halloween displays are "not real" and that it's simply pretend and role play. And the BBQ display is not "normal". When people react with cringe or laughing at how over the top it is, it's clear that everyone knows it's not real and not normal. That's the point. The whole thing is NOT normal or real. If we see a person being tortured in real life, we would never think that's okay!
My mum shared with me later on about a an Aljazeerah documentary she watched about a Kurdish woman together with her two young sons who were rescued from ISIS. The elder boy, about 7 or 8 years because very violent and abusive towards his mother. He tortured and decapitated animals, slapped and kicked his teachers and other children. According to the mother, he was forced to watch pornography and videos of ISIS decapitating prisoners. So he reenacted the scenes. He couldn't verbalise properly and resorted to screaming and shouting whenever people talked to him. That was an extreme trauma.
So perhaps it's all about context.
For us the context of Halloween is about community, sweet treats, fiction, role play, and the art of villainy. We don't offer up the Halloween displays and images as being 'normal' or 'good'. We evaluate each belief or action objectively based on it's own context.
On the other hand, religion tends to muddy up the whole picture. In each religion's narrative, the role of the hero and the villain is already decided from the beginning. There is no room for swapping perspectives. No room for nuance. In most Abrahamic faiths, God is always the good guy. Everything he does is good. All the time. Even when it seems bad. It must be good in some way. We just don't understand it. So don't try to understand it. Just accept it.
Talk about diabolical.
In art and literature, confrontation with darkness has always been a powerful theme. Not just in the abstract, but also in tangible ways. It's what was able to inspire some of the greatest poems and novels. Those poets and authors allowed themselves to look directly at these darknesses, even study them and be fascinated by them. Not to condone them, but to understand them. Only by doing so, they were able to contrast them and give meaning to light. Sometimes even seeing the nuanced grey areas between the two supposedly opposing sides.
“Every coin has two sides. Every mountain has a valley. For every strength there is a weakness. Every up has a down. For every in there is an out. For every height there is a depth. Life itself is a mosaic of light and dark. And every human is a study in opposites, a kaleidoscope of good and bad, positive and negative, hopes and losses, dreams and disappointments, successes and failures, courage and fear, confidence and insecurity, power and vulnerability. We do not live in a homogeneous world. We live in a world of brilliant contrasts, vivid diversity, striking polarity, and eloquent disparity...a stunning array of sometimes gorgeous, sometimes glaring, always fascinating differences.”
―
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