Is there
too much gore and horror in Halloween?
Would you decorate your house and lawn like this? Would you prefer a grisly costume to a white
sheet with two holes? What attracts
people (especially young people perhaps) to disgusting images of death and
disfiguration?
What do you
think of celebrating a British/American holiday like Halloween in
Slovakia? Is it taking over All Saint’s
Day?
As a child, I loved holiday decorations and I was always eager to prepare something with my mother at home or with classmates at school. I have not stopped liking the decorations, but I am slowly getting fond of them. It is not because I am older and I am not interested in them anymore. It is because decorations are not what they used to be. Even if it is just a short time ago when I was a small child, they went through rapid changes. It looks like people are no more satisfied with classic homemade decorations, but they need something more. And no way it would be the same as the last year or God forbid not more breathtaking than the neighbour’s. I have the feeling that the decorations are no more meant to make us happy, but to show how much we still can raise the bar. Halloween is a great example of getting “over” with decorations and I must fully agree with Michele Holmgren.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this impressive article, I realized that people do not only exaggerate with decorations, but also that the decorations not always have to do something with the origin of holiday being celebrated. As Michele said: current Halloween decorations do not reflect our fear of death and loss but an irrational fear, which I think does not go hand in hand with original harvest festivals or later All Souls’ Night. I would rather light a candle for my granddad than spending a fortune on changing my yard into a horror mausoleum. Moreover, traditional symbols as a carved turnip changed into cut bodies. Even if you type Halloween in Wikipedia, you can find there some pictures of decorations and costumes including humorous gravestones in front of a Californian house. I see it similarly as the author: jack-o’-lantern has more spiritual solace than some than some plastic simulacra of the lifework of a serial murderer.
All in all, I am definitely not against decorations but there is some limit which in my opinion should not be exceeded. Better go to see your deceased ancestors to real graveyard instead of imitating one in front of your house. And feel free to cut out some paper bats and carve a pumpkin. Do not forget to put a candle inside.
I definitely agree with Henrich. As a small child I also liked carving of jack-o’-lantern in school or with friends. But for today children it is not enough. For them is Halloween not a tradition anymore. They see it just like a way to get sweets and compete about the most modern costume. Child wearing bedsheet with holes is not modern enough. And I also agree that decorations are not what they used to be. It would be nicer if children wore home-made costumes and people on the street would see their talent in making paper bats and carving pumpkins But people are competitive and nobody can change that.
DeleteOn the other hand, time has changed and jack-o’-lantern can be considered as a cliché. And it is on everybody’s personal prefferences how will he decorate his house. So we should let people be and hope that dead bodies and torn limbs start to get on their nerves.
I share the Henrich´s memories, that as a child I was always excited before the Halloween. Making bats from paper, carving pumpkins, getting in some scary costume. Yes, there are the things that children love about Halloween. But now when I am older I realize that I have never known why I had even got in some of those weird costumes. And I am pretty sure that there are no many people who actually do know some further information about Halloween, what it is, when it was created, why it is supposed to be scary. People simply look around; see that their neighbor has pretty scarily decorated lawn, so they decide to make their own one even scarier. And this is what I think about Halloween nowadays. It is no more about traditions for me, but about making the best decoration in the neighborhood, creating the scariest costumes and simply getting some candies by trick-or-treating. The word tradition here refers just to something, which has to be done every year.
DeleteEven though that I like how realistically can people decorate their houses with different body parts, which I see on television, I have to say that I am happy that this form of Halloween is not spread also in Slovakia and it is not so popular here. As Heňo has stated, it is much nicer to put a flower on the grave of your deceased from love than getting into ridiculous costume from unknown reason.
I definitely agree with this article. Halloween became a commercial holiday, when shops want to make a lot of money by selling sweets and most importantly, decorations. They usually take inspiration from the newest horror movies which are more and more bloody.
ReplyDeleteFor some people is Vampire from Nosferatu not scary enough and they want something more. And as I mentioned, new movies are full of human remains. For me, those decorations such as torn arms or legs are not so scary but just more disgusting. And as it was mentioned in the article, that there was something like skeleton of a baby in a spider web, it is just too much for me. In my opinion people should consider more, if other people like their decorations or not. Not many people can bear them. I think that Halloween should not turn into holiday of blood and torn humans. Younger people may like this type of decoration because it is not so childish for them. So that is why they like more costumes from the horror movies which are new and well known nowadays instead of classic ones like ghost from a bed sheet or frankenstein. I would not decorate my house this way, with a lot of violence. I think that traditional jack-o’-lantern or witch on a broom is much better and more natural for people.
In Slovakia we have nothing like Halloween. We celebrate All soul’s night by lighting a candle on grave for dead people in our family. And in my opinion, we should not celebrate Halloween like in USA. It is their tradition and we do not have to copy it just because it is cool. And secondly, we should remember our traditions that are not celebrated like in the past and then copy other.
I don't think that the difference between the Halloween decorations nowadays and the ones that used to be created in the past is only the result of commercialization of this holiday and that it should only be considered as inadequate. I believe that shift from jack-o'-lanterns, bats and witches to human skeletons and torn body parts is a result of the change in our perception of fear. Halloween has always been about scaring others and being scared and I don't think it is different nowadays. The only thing that changed is what we are frightened of. Few decades ago, a person in white bedsheets pretending to be a ghost or a straw scarecrow was enough to scare a small child. But today, with all the violence that is perceptable in the media and with the society completely accepting that children are viewing this violence from a very early age, you can't expect that these children will get frightened by a paper bat or a carved pumpkin. A child that watches movies full of death, blood and violence and plays video games with explicit images of killing on a daily bases will no more be terrified of an ugly witch with a black cat. Thus, it is understandable that the Halloween decorations have to be more grisly and even disgusting in order to fulfill their function of scaring. I think that the change of Halloween from a holiday full of pumpkins and vampires to a holiday full of crime scenes and dead bodies is only the result of the progression of today's society. However, it is on every individual to decide, whether to view this progress as positive or negative.
DeleteHere is Martina Sabova’s reply:
DeleteFirst of all, I would like to say something to the sentence which stated "Halloween became a commercial holiday". In my opinion, Halloween as a type of holiday in America compared to our All Saint´s day has always been obviously commercial. Since the very beginning, the point from which I and my peers started to recognize such thing as Halloween it has been appealing on people and that´s what I think it is about. It is about people enjoying hanging Halloween decorations, trick-or-treating, buying frightening masks and things like these. It is, was and always will be commercial because it is the purpose of this holiday. Furthemore, I don´t quite see the drawback or the bad on shops trying to use this holiday for their own good. In contrast, it is very beneficial for both sides; shoppers and sellers too while one person makes money and the other satisfies his needs with buying the ware offered.
Secondly, I do not fully agree with your point about the aesthetic part of the decorations. Admittedly, they do not have to be appealing for everybody but as long as they make happy their owners does this really matter? We live in the 21st century with democracy and liberty of posession so it seems to me a bit unfair to force the people to buy less frightening or bloody decorations. Whatever inspires them, does. I think it is their lawn they are decorating and if we imagined ourselves in their shoes would not we want to decorate it how do we like it? Who we are to say what people should or should not do or like?
Last of all, I partly disagree with your last argument mentioned in the conclusion about traditions. In my point of view, traditions are indeed important and we should continue in preserving and cherishing them. However, every tradition was born at some point in time. Consequently I think it is inconsiderate to say that we would be copying american traditions if we started celebrating Halloween. I think we could adapt it as a new tradition beside All Saint´s day and choose wether we want to celebrate this or that.
To sum up, generally I do not think that Halloween bloody human remains decorations are such a severe problem to be concerned with. Halloween was and is celebrated in such way, using this exact type of decoration so I think it would be inappropraite to ruin the conventions of Halloween and in the sparkle of the traditional value I tried to preserve in my comment I state that we should help to develop these new traditions.
Martina Sabová
This is a comment by Sona Langova:
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this article, I perceived that I am so happy for living in such a small country as Slovakia. Even though we are still taking new and new things and traditions from the west, fortunately, the Halloween mania has not arrived here yet. As my classmates have already said, Halloween is not a tradition anymore. It has turned into an unbelievable promotion of people’s richness and a combat between neighbors for the most abominable front yard. However, if we consider it, do really someone like this exaggeration? How many people like to see the view of graveyard and ripped bones during their Halloween walk? I would say it seems funny just to the teenagers, who are in the age of liking everything that may look cool. Other people, like adults, elderly and small children could find this inappropriate and would definitely prefer nicer decorations. But everybody wants to go with the times and show off. Nevertheless, it is very sad, because Halloween used to have a deeper meaning sometimes, while nowadays it is just an insignificant day full of horror that has nothing to do with traditions. In my opinion, traditions are much nicer, much more honest than some artificial decorations. Wouldn’t it be better if we invested money to buy a beautiful flower and candles to decorate our relatives’ grave?
Moreover, I do not think that exaggerating Halloween decorations in this way can have a positive effect on children that go trick-or-treating. Just imagine if you were a six-year-old kid having fun on Halloween night, you go to your neighbors and see a dead body, ripped limbs, spilled blood everywhere. Maybe you would not even notice, but it can affect you significantly. I know that in these times children see scary images everywhere, mostly in the TV, but I do not even agree with that. They should not be exposed to this kind of violence in such a small age. Then after some time people are worried why their child is afraid to go to a graveyard to light a candle. And after those dreadful images, things like being sawed or limb-ripped seem normal to them. Why nottry it at home then? Children cannot know what the consequences are; they just see it and think it is normal. We are here to avoid this, to teach children what they can do and what not. But if we expose something like this in our front yard, it will have exactly the opposite effect.
To conclude, I do not think that this new fashion of decorating gardens with horror images is good for anything. Neither for children nor for the remembrance of the dead. Not even for a good look, because it looks terribly meretricious. People should consider what Halloween really means and not forget about simple things as traditions. I am so glad for our beautiful All Saints’s Day.
First of all, I do not agree that Halloween is not a tradition anymore. Even if it has become "an unbelievable promotion of people’s richness and a combat between neighbors for the most abominable front yard", I still regard it as some kind of a tradition because there are these numbers of people who do it regularly every year. Moreover, you are asking whether it is not better to decorate the graves, but I think that we still actually do that in Slovakia and it is our tradition just like Halloween is an American one. So we really should not recommend them to take up our traditions and vice versa. And it all depends on the intensity of national traditions and persuasions if we surrender to these western customs because of the pressure.
DeleteSecond of all, I deem the idea about negative effect on children truly exaggerated. Especially, the idea about "Why nottry it at home then?". I do not believe it seems normal to children that they would literally cut their arms off at home. I would say they consider it as fun linked with the special time of the year, so let them play! If I am wrong though, I would be really worried about the intelligence of people and its future.
All in all, I like our All Saints’s Day as well because of its unique atmosphere, on the other hand, I would not mind having more Halloween parties just like in the western countries, in Slovakia too.