What is the equivalent of bah-humbug for halloween? Boo-humbug? Whatever it is… That is me. Year in year out! Normally this manifests in me not dressing up or taking part in any meaningful way and waiting it out until it all blows over.
This year however, I positively embraced my boo-humbugness by being a rainbow unicorn for the evening. It was my stand for joy, and lightness and dreams of magic and happiness rather than death, and the dark heaviness that I find generally accompanies All Hallows’ eve.
This was actually quite a revelation for me. It was – at the age of 33 – the first time I have ever willingly got involved in fancy dress. I experienced it as an actual burning desire. It has definitely been a turning point for me when it comes to embracing the idea of fancy dress more generally.
And as much as I loved being a rainbow unicorn, and by golly I did love it – In fact I would happily be a rainbow unicorn daily if I had some kind of sensor on the end of my horn so as to be sure not to injure any unsuspecting bystanders (which frankly, was a slight issue!) – I have since been questioning whether it was arguably disrespectful in some way to flagrantly flout the conventions of that particular evening?
My experience of boo-humbug actually runs deeper than a reluctance to embrace the festival of Halloween. It seems to me to be a pretty extreme aversion to all things dark. I think this is partly down to personality and preference. I like to embrace the happy, and I find that sunshine and fairies and things that reinforce the beauty of life make me feel nourished, which is a feeling I enjoy. Conversely zombies, saucery, pain and death make me feel on edge and fearful which is not a feeling I enjoy. Therefore I reject it – makes sense!
However, I also wonder that, as an all-or-nothing kind of gal, maybe I resist any and all types of dark in fear that if I welcome any small part of darkness, this will open the floodgates to a whole torrent of dark. Likewise I have a question mark over whether my aversion stems party from an inability (or unwillingness?) to empathise with that extreme pain which is often experienced on a deep soulfully bruising level, when you loose somebody that you love. I have been very lucky in life not yet to have experienced any crushingly traumatic loses. May it continue that way for a long time. The idea of identifying with that kind of pain, seems overwhelmingly intense… avoid, avoid, avoid.
This year just after Holloween I came across this quote – which is rather long, but nevertheless kept my attention – by a guy named ‘Agamemnon Otero’, who – just from the name – sounds like someone who knows what he’s talking about! This was the reason I started to question whether being a rainbow unicorn was actually disrespectful on Halloween.
“November arrives as the harvest is complete. Grain has been stored, fruits picked and conserved, vegetable seeds for the next growing season are separated out and kept back for planting.
The dead have passed away from the social concerns of this world to the primordial chaos of the Otherworld where all fertility has its roots, but they are still bound to the living by the ties of kinship.
We strengthen our ties to the dead when the natural cycle of earth passes through its own moment of death so that the community of the living might benefit from the energies of increase that lead out of death back to life.
Now is the time to remember those who have entered the spirit world, a time to pay due homage to the dead in order to ensure the return of new life.
Dead kin are our allies in the Otherworld, making certain that the creative forces deep within the land are being directed to serve the needs of the natural community.
Now is the time when the veil between the physical world and the spirit world is at its thinnest and so it is the most likely time for spirits to be seen on earth.
Tonight, as the barrier between the two realms grows thin, spirits walk amongst us, once again.”
I love that he draws parallels between the cyclical nature of life and death, and the seasonal changes of the Earth. And that he guides on the usefulness of the dead in the replenishing of nutrients for soil fertility for future harvests. I love that he points out the importance of fostering a healthy respect for this natural way of things, and that he puts value on the kinship that those still living have shared with those that have now been lost. Frankly, Agamemnon has framed Halloween here in a way that makes me want to embrace the deathly darkness for the festival as a mark of respect, both to natures necessary cycles, and to the kinship which has been shared with those that have passed on. Maybe next year I will be a little less controversial.