I know I usually bring up holiday questions around the applicable holiday. But I felt compelled to ask this now.
Halloween. In the US at least, it is a time to celebrate the evil and the macabre. Witches and dragons. And violence. Severed heads and limbs, and people in the electric chair.
I know in the 80’s, when I was till rather young, they used to say Halloween was a time to embrace things like that. And it was perfectly healthy, they said.
Now, as a culture, we have become almost hysterical and phobic about violence, even in the abstract. I know a couple of years ago, my cousin’s son N., was in some kind of a program for children, perhaps after school or something like that. And he made an off-hand remark that at the time seemed innocent. But because, they determined, it implied violence, however indirectly, he was suspended from the program at once.
My point it, embracing evil and violence need not lead to evil and violence, and may even be rather healthy. That at least in my opening remarks to this debate.
But since it is a debate, I want to hear other’s opinion of this matter. Is celebrating Halloween healthy?
Me too, Max. Also, it feels like Halloween (for adults anyway) is becoming more and more an excuse for revealing clothing and booze than a reason to celebrate severed limbs and the like.
Also…are we really that phobic about violence? Seems we’re much more comfortable with violence/bloodshed than we are with sexuality, at least in our movies.
In the late 70s and early 80s the beer companies in the United States really started to push Halloween as a holiday for adults to enjoy. I was born in the late 1970s and I can only remember one time that my parents dressed up for Halloween and that was because they were invited to a costume party. These days I have several friends who dress up and go to parties every year.
It’s really just the haunted house/forest displays that go for the macabre isn’t it? For the adult parties it’s just about getting dressed up as whatever and having fun. For the kids you’re more likely to see a fairy princess or ewok than witch or vampire.
Isn’t this just a variation on what parents deal with on a daily basis.
While we do wonder about it to an extent, we don’t think violence itself is being celebrated when kids play “Cowboys & Indians” or “Astronauts and Aliens” or “Superheros vs Supervillains” or whatever.
Yes, violence can be a part of that play (and does have some parents concerned), but it’s not really the central focus of the sort of make-believe kids engage in daily. As often as not, they’re exalting the positive qualities instead - standing up for the little guy, doing what’s right, etc.
How is Halloween really any different? Kids aren’t embracing evil and violence so much as getting candy. More often than not, they’re dressing up as princesses or firemen or superheroes or whatever. All the macabre stuff is simply traditional at this point, though there are some wicked cool haunted houses these days (that seem targeted at adults more than kids, really).
I have never encountered anyone saying we should “celebrate” evil on Hallowe’en. I have never encountered anyone who said that we should “embrace” violence on Hallowe’en.
Rather, I have encountered a number of people who think it is fine to allow kids to face scary phenomena in a safe environment.
The hyper overreaction to kids saying scary things or pointing fingers at playmates and saying “Bang!” is not really connected to Hallowe’en (except when some idiot village decides that Trick-or-Treating has to be carried out in daylight or local organizations set up alternatives to keep kids from even enjoying Trick-or-Treating). Those overreactions are based on other aspects of violence in society.
To the extent that grown-ups have created ever more gruesome “haunted house” displays, it might actually be an attempt to bring a similar ritual to adults to allow them to face their fears in light of the societal reaction to the perception that violence is growing in society.
An interesting article about why we enjoy scary things can be found here
As far as healthy vs unhealthy, I think that most people can distinguish fantasy from reality pretty well. Most of those who can’t are more likely to be on the side of not liking scary things, because without the knowledge of safety, real fear is not an enjoyable experience.
As for the extreme minority who are psychopaths and find pleasure the reality of the gruesomeness, that is portrayed in horror, they are likely to be that way whether or not they have been exposed to fake horror. In fact fake horror may have the possibility of acting as a release valve for their desires in a less harmful manner.
Let’s see, you put a bunch of kids out on the street at night and have a bunch of adults drinking too much alcohol at places that aren’t there own home. It’s amazing we don’t have more fatalities than we do.
Oh wait, this is about violent imagery? Fuck if I know.
I think it is a mix of healthy and unhealthy. I kind of like the ‘release valve’ theory- Halloween is a time when people have permission to do all kinds of crazy things. Society can be pretty oppressive sometimes- getting off the leash once in a while makes people feel free and free people are less likely to do crazy things.
I’m sure you could find something unhealthy about Halloween if you look though. But like people have already said, not everyone celebrates violence. Is it the ubiquity of violent images that you (OP) think might be unhealthy? Whether you celebrate violence or not, just about everybody gets confronted with images of the things you mentioned- blood and dismemberment, evil creatures, etc. Would society be better off if we didn’t splash that material all over the place? shrug I dunno, I doubt it, but I can believe somebody somewhere is going to be at least upset about it.
Me, I went as Mr. Clean last year. What could be healthier?
