Halloween and after

This year we were told that Halloween was less commercial than past years. This was not my impression, at least in our South Dublin neighbourhood.

Having taken my afternoon walks around some of the nearby streets, I was surprised at how early and how generously some of the houses had been decorated. All the usual things were there but in greater abundance I thought than I had seen before; though one might wonder at what age group they were meant to entertain.

The skeletons, the vampire bats, the giant spiders and their elaborate webs, other weird creatures crawling up and down the walls from bedrooms to basements. Slowly my dismay, I have to say, grew. Many were derived not from any kind of Irish tradition, or reimagining of Christian folklore, but from patented (‘all rights reserved’) images from Hollywood over the years. What a pity the late Charles Addams is not here to enjoy these by-blows to his talent, and to claim his fees.

However, quite the most astonishing sight was a railing load of what seemed to be broken Barbie dolls, a variety of broken bodies, some without heads, others with a leg, or an arm, hanging upside down like so many voodoo dolls. I doubt, however, if the residents had any belief in the rites of the divine horsemen of voodoo than they now had for the faiths in which I suspect they were reared.

But all this we are reassured by those who promote tourism, culture and sales drives of all kinds, all this is ‘just for fun’. I can’t think there is much fun in broken bodies, or indeed any video thrills for gorging on.

Yet it set me thinking about Halloween. I knew, of course, all about the origins of much of the symbolism and how and where it developed. But what I find a little sad is that the feast of all souls should be so transformed.
True it is forgotten that it is followed by All Saints’ Day. I have long wondered why this too might not be popularised as a sort of day to celebrate perhaps not the saints of the churches, but certainly all those universally recognised as being among the good and the great.

I suppose though it is now too late for anything like that. There seems to be a shortage of both goodness and greatness these days. However, we still have the Nobel Prizes, born out of an admission on the part of the inventor Alfred Nobel that dynamite, his new invention, did as much harm as good in the world. These prizes are presented around this time of year. They at least are something heart raising: after the darkness a new dawn.