For
decades, various community members have lambasted Halloween and lamented on the
holiday’s pernicious effects, including the encouragement of violence and the promotion
of Satanism. While such concerns are well intended, numerous scholars have countered
these sensational claims by emphasizing the celebration’s therapeutic benefits
to both adults and children alike. Historian Nicholas Rogers attests that
Halloween, beginning in the latter half of the twentieth century, has become an
instrument for adults to explore and challenge gender politics.[1] The only major
celebration in the United States where individuals are openly permitted to dress
as the opposite gender or mock the overly sexualized qualities saluted by consumerism
and the media, Halloween, Rogers argues, allows society, namely the feminist
and homosexual communities, the freedom to ridicule patriarchal constructs in a
manner that brings both humor and light to a suppressive system.[2] Likewise,
child psychologists Dr. Lee Salk maintains that Halloween, especially for
children, serves as a venue for the safe confrontation of anxieties and fears.
As the psychologist explains, the holiday regularly showcases themes which
encompass many of our deepest misgivings, including darkness, death,
monsters, and the supernatural. While a majority of these uncertainties remain unspoken
trepidations throughout the year, Halloween offers a rare opportunity to
publicly endorse these apprehensions and do so without the dread of ridicule.[3]
Hence, the holiday, particularly for younger individuals, becomes a means for
people to face their fears of the unknown and do so in a
facetious manner encouraged by others (e.g. visiting the darkened confines of a
haunted house where fictitious displays of mysticism and violence are safely encountered by patrons). Furthermore, akin to Rogers’ stance,
Salk stresses that the festivities not only allow children to challenge their
fears, but gain comfort in them through the process of role playing, where they
can mockingly dress as the ghosts and monsters which frighten them the most.[4]
Works
Referenced
Brokaw,
Meridith and Annie Gilbar. The
Pennywhistle Halloween Book. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.
Rogers,
Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to
Party Night. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
____________________
[1] Rogers, 9-10.
[1] Rogers, 9-10.
[2] Rogers,
9-10.
[3] Brokaw
and Gilbar, 9.
[4] Brokaw
and Gilbar, 9.
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