Paean to the dead

The skeletons walked; a man with a death mask glared; a witch lunged menacingly while a man dressed in a huge floatable dress reached out and embraced me in a bear hug that almost smothered me. But it was the last day of October, the  Halloween night, and the parade of weirdo’s on New York’s Sixth Avenue was in full swing. The din of music from the huge floats, eye-popping performances by jugglers, dancers and even common citizens joining in carefully thought- out bizarre costumes, were in celebration of  the dark spirits from the Netherworld .

The latest James Bond film Spectre too opens with a spectacular parade scene in Mexico celebrating the dead on its ‘Dia de los Muertos’, the day of the dead. Despite the macabre connotation, there is gaiety in the atmosphere as if celebrating the visit of the dead or ghosts, if some of the costumes are analysed.

Why this fascination for the inhabitants of a world beyond the living that stoke such celebrations? After all, most festivals around the world, deeply rooted  in agricultural  practices and its cycles are related to spring, sowing, harvest etc. and very much to do with  the known world.

Well, pundits say that even the Halloween ritual, so big today in the USA (apparently it’s a six billion plus dollar industry) and parts of Latin America, can be traced back to old Celtic traditions practiced in Ireland and Scotland by the farming community. The celebration coincided with the final harvests of the year and getting ready for the cold winter months when earth itself went into a cocoon of hibernation to wake up again in spring. Their festival of Samhain was celebrated on October 31 when, people believed,  the world of the living and the dead  crossed boundaries. They also believed that the ghosts of the loved ones came back to earth on this day to mingle with them.

When the Romans conquered the Celts’ lands in France and England, they took into their fold the Samhain festival to combine with their own festival of the dead  which also took place in October. With the spread of Christianity, many so-called pagan festivals were taken in by the Church to merge with their own festivals. Samhain thus morphed into the celebration of martyrs and saints held on November 1, the All Saints Day. This Christian festival was called All-Hallows, while the evening before was called All-Hallows-Eve, and later Halloween.

Dressing up in costumes, holding parades, playing scary pranks and tricks on one another and lighting up  bonfires were common practices of the Halloween  holiday. Superstitious, people in those ancient times thought  that in the evening when the ghosts descended on earth  and  roamed around their homes they could be confronted  and even harmed  and so they began to wear masks and other ghostly gear in order to befuddle the spirits into believing that they too were ghosts. They also placed food and wine on the doorsteps to appease the souls.

In the 19^th century, when the migrants from Europe arrived in the New World, i.e. North America, they brought along the tradition of Halloween celebration. Huge pumpkins figure prominently in America’s food and grocery stalls  ahead of the festival and  you would see decorated pumpkins adorning door steps or hanging  from balconies  preceding Halloween. This ritual also is reminiscent of an Irish  folklore about  the “Jack-o’-lanterns” after a man called Stingy Jack. He angered the Devil  by repeatedly cheating him after a promise of a drink and when he died his soul was accepted neither in Heaven nor Hell. The Devil  ent off Jack into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. He put the coal into a carved-out turnip to roam the Earth forever since (the scientific reason behind the will--o- the wisp on the bogs, of course, escaped the rural folk).

People made their own versions of Jack’s lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. The early settlers in America found the pumpkin, native to the land, the perfect foil to make the jack-o’-lanterns.

The Spaniards, many of whom had Celtic origin introduced the concept in Latin America. In Mexico especially, it’s a big occasion; people bake pan de muerto- bread of the dead -the loaves even look like a pile of bones, and take to the graveyard as offering to their dead relatives. It is said that  the abundance of skulls and skeletons in their parade is reminiscent of Mexico’s original inhabitants, the Aztecs, who used  skulls in their rituals as symbolic of death and rebirth.

Folklorists and anthropologists point out that celebrating the dead through rituals, or paying them due respects with a festival, is not confined to America and Mexico. In Korea, the Chuseck festival is held after the harvest before the onset of winter. Especially prepared rice cakes are offered at the graves.

The Buddhists and Taoists celebrate the Hungry Ghost festival  sometime in July-August. 

In Cambodia one of the most important holidays is around the festival of Pchum Ben for the Khmers. People wear white, a sign of mourning,  and believe that the dead come to be with them and also atone for their past sins during this time.

Back home, in eastern India, on the night before  Kali puja, worship of  the dark goddess of Kali, many households light fourteen lamps to pay respect to fourteen generations of ancestors.

It is interesting how a sombre, and somewhat apprehensive, festival slowly turned into a costume drama. In the twentieth century the focus in America shifted from Halloween being a festival of the dead to a festival of costumes. Children are seen visiting homes in costumes  and collecting candies as ‘alms’  which again harks back to the tradition of the needy  going from house to house to beg for food and wine at this time, especially after a good harvest.

In this globalized world can countries remain uninfluenced by something so embedded in the West? So, urban India too has been increasingly  embracing the festive spirit of Halloween though the country has nothing to do with the Celtic tradition. Says Geetika Kathuria of Gurgaon, mother of a seven year old son: “The kids dress up and they have their own plans for this occasion. There are Halloween parties, bonfires, even adult Halloween parties over here with people dressing up in outrageous costumes.”

Hotels and restaurants have also caught up and organize special menus and décor to echo the spirit of the Halloween, however spooky it maybe. “Basically it’s another occasion to enjoy a party, do something different,” says Shalini Singh, a homemaker from Bangalore who has observed the growing popularity of the  festival in her city. The presence of many ex-pats in the metro, who are used to this tradition, has also influenced the service industry to jump into the fray, she feels.

Well, the dead deserves attention too, whatever you say.

(Photos by the author)