Halloween Manifesto
We arrived home from a trip abroad smack dab on the autumnal equinox. Having arrived in France amidst summer heat, the weather turned a few days in and we experienced the chill and the rain, and were fortunate to witness the verdant Southwestern countryside's leaves ignite into scarlet.
Here in LA, scorching temperatures are the norm for September and October. If you want to find signs of fall, you have to look very hard. However, it's easy to notice how the days wind down more quickly, and the nights grown longer with each sunset. Despite the weather, at this point of the year my thoughts go towards fall, winter, and the coming holidays.
Holidays are a break from the grind of our everyday existence. We desperately need a chance to feel and think and do something different than the quotidian, which can become stifling if we don't step outside it every so often. For some of us, the celebration of Halloween is more than just candy, costumes and jack o' lanterns. For some it is a time to honor ancestors and those loved ones who have departed. For some it is the day when the veil between this world and the spirit world is thin, a time to remember our own ephemeral nature, the transiency of this physical human experience.
Last year for the first time I made an intentional shift away from the Halloween commonly expected of us: a consumerist explosion of blood, guts, sugar and plastic. I decided I would not fill my house (or even my front porch) with cheap plastic decorations bound ultimately for the landfill. I chose with great care (and considerable consternation on the part of my family) decorations that reflected what I want this holiday to mean, and that I would feel happy to store all year long and haul out year after year. My commitment continues this year. This is a real challenge, as my daughter has decided this year she wants ours to be the scariest house on the block. I will continue my concerted effort to celebrate the season using things found in Nature (where, trust me, creepiness abounds). I will also continue to make an effort to avoid the very violent horror-type imagery that is a reflection of this society's violent dominator culture, and creeps me out in a way I don't at all enjoy. When preventable deaths happen in our streets, schools and churches, dead bodies don't strike me as cool, interesting or fun (but, hey, that's just me).
This post was inspired by an artist I've been following, Frau Fiber. She sent out a Halloween manifesto that echoes my concerns, specifically around Halloween costumes. Apart from the common risk for cultural appropriation, racial insults and disturbing gender norms, costumes are a big ol' consumerist and ecological mess.
https://fraufiber.wordpress.com/2016/09/28/halloween-costume-manifesto/
http://www.aquariandawn.com/blog/the-deepest-magic-to-know-yourself-know-your-ancestors
Here in LA, scorching temperatures are the norm for September and October. If you want to find signs of fall, you have to look very hard. However, it's easy to notice how the days wind down more quickly, and the nights grown longer with each sunset. Despite the weather, at this point of the year my thoughts go towards fall, winter, and the coming holidays.
Holidays are a break from the grind of our everyday existence. We desperately need a chance to feel and think and do something different than the quotidian, which can become stifling if we don't step outside it every so often. For some of us, the celebration of Halloween is more than just candy, costumes and jack o' lanterns. For some it is a time to honor ancestors and those loved ones who have departed. For some it is the day when the veil between this world and the spirit world is thin, a time to remember our own ephemeral nature, the transiency of this physical human experience.
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| Tagine and purple decanters I will never forgive myself for leaving behind at Goodwill |
Last year for the first time I made an intentional shift away from the Halloween commonly expected of us: a consumerist explosion of blood, guts, sugar and plastic. I decided I would not fill my house (or even my front porch) with cheap plastic decorations bound ultimately for the landfill. I chose with great care (and considerable consternation on the part of my family) decorations that reflected what I want this holiday to mean, and that I would feel happy to store all year long and haul out year after year. My commitment continues this year. This is a real challenge, as my daughter has decided this year she wants ours to be the scariest house on the block. I will continue my concerted effort to celebrate the season using things found in Nature (where, trust me, creepiness abounds). I will also continue to make an effort to avoid the very violent horror-type imagery that is a reflection of this society's violent dominator culture, and creeps me out in a way I don't at all enjoy. When preventable deaths happen in our streets, schools and churches, dead bodies don't strike me as cool, interesting or fun (but, hey, that's just me).
This post was inspired by an artist I've been following, Frau Fiber. She sent out a Halloween manifesto that echoes my concerns, specifically around Halloween costumes. Apart from the common risk for cultural appropriation, racial insults and disturbing gender norms, costumes are a big ol' consumerist and ecological mess.
https://fraufiber.wordpress.com/2016/09/28/halloween-costume-manifesto/
http://www.aquariandawn.com/blog/the-deepest-magic-to-know-yourself-know-your-ancestors
10/6/16 4:33pm
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