Halloween - Subtle confrontation with fear

All over the world October is in the signs of Halloween. On advertisements, in stores, on the internet, it is impossible to avoid Jack-o'-Lantern pumpkins, animated and plastic human skeletons, witch hats, rubber vampire teeth. It is a holiday that was originally celebrated in Western culture and is not necessarily linked to the Christian tradition. Although Halloween predates the Christian holiday of All Saints, it did not initially originate from Christian religious practice. It is believed to originate from the tradition of the ancient Celts and is associated with the celebration of the pagan holiday Samhain, which marked the end of the year - the period after autumn work and harvest, and winter was interpreted as the arrival of the "darker period of the year".

The tradition of Halloween is based on the belief that on the night of October 31, the souls of the dead come among people and search for the living to lead to the world of the dead. To protect themselves, people disguise themselves as witches, vampires, zombies and ghosts. When the souls of the dead pass by people on Halloween night and take a look through the windows of houses in search of prey, the belief says: the masked living will go unnoticed - the ghosts will think that people dressed as scarecrows are one of them and will not attack them. "Trick or treat" is a custom born from the belief that people will ward off ghosts if they are given some material gifts.

What psychological message does Halloween have?

Seen from the perspective of a child's psychological development, Halloween can serve a useful function. Halloween is presented to children through characters from fairy tales, folk tales, horror films, which are symbols of dark side - beings with supernatural powers who want to dominate the living world and thus harm men - the good side . Witches, evil fairies, vampires are figures that embody evil and bad qualities, and in order to defeat them, a person must show courage, virtues, skills and wisdom. Through stories like this, children learn one of the simplified lessons about morality: duality good versus bad . Over time, cognitive maturation happens, beliefs in supernatural beings cease, and the moral system of the individual becomes more complex. The actions of individuals can be negative and undesirable - there is a difference between a person and behavior, that is, intention and actions.

Stories with elements of horror can be presented to children as comical, which we can see in numerous films. For example the character of Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's novel of the same name in the animated film Hotel Transylvania, is presented as a comical character who has to deal with his own fears and insecurities related to his daughter's future. Dracula is no longer a supernatural being who poses a threat to the human race, but someone who resembles humans in concerns, fears, problems and traits. A similar approach to portraying horror aesthetics can be found in films about the Addams family, where morbid elements are woven into the story of a community in which members support each other and who comically face a society that sees them as unusual and creepy. Although at first glance they are freaks who don't look like us at all, Mortisha, Gomez, Wednesday, Pugsley and Uncle Fester show their virtues through their actions and teach us an important lesson: that appearances can deceive us. These are just some of the examples of how what initially seems bad and terrible, can be presented as a story with a lesson in which good characters are those who do good deeds and have empathy for others.

Halloween is a social ritual that, through fun and aesthetics with elements of fear and horror, confronts people with feelings of anxiety, apprehension and fear of death.

The psychological function of a holiday like Halloween, on the other hand, can be a little more serious than it appears at first glance. With morbid elements placed in a comical context, stories about terrible beings that come from "the other world" subtly confront us with the fear of the finitude of life . The theme of mortality is not dealt with in a direct way, but by introducing the idea of another imaginary space, inaccessible to us, which we get to know through monsters with magical powers. One interpretation could be that in this way the fear of death is sublimated into marking the terrible as grotesque and comical. Thus, one of the essential topics of human existence, the topic of death is not suppressed and is in our consciousness in a way that is not emotionally overwhelming.

The Halloween aesthetic offers a fun imaginary space that does not trigger intense feelings of fear and anxiety. Pumpkins, artificial skeletons, monster masks are not phenomena that threaten the psychological well-being of modern man. It is a place where we can ask ourselves questions: What do we react to with fear today, how did we react when we believed in witches and vampires? What are we afraid of today?

Author: Bojana Škorić