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Writer's pictureJonathan Douglas

Hallowe'en and Spooky Action at a Distance

Hallowe'en began as a pre-Christian European celebration of the Harvest and was called Samhain (pronounced So-in). Lacking any reliable historical record, we can only speculate on the particulars of this ancient tradition. We can, however, make inferences from the modern holiday and similar customs around the world. The holiday is celebrated in Britain and continental Europe, but it flourished in 19th century America due to the influx of Irish immigrants who practiced more dogmatically lenient forms of Celtic Christianity which incorporated the pagan traditions into "Hallow's Eve".


Hallowe'en in America, like many of our holidays, was shaped by our materialist principles of commerce and consumption. The homemade costumes and candied apples of the original tradition were replaced by mass produced costumes and store-bought candy. That commercialization continued through the decades and entire subcultures emerged in music, film, television, and the visual arts. In 1960s San Francisco, the notorious self-avowed Satanist Anton LaVey used the tropes of mid century shlock Horror to oppose both organized religion and the hippy counterculture. By the 1980s post-Punk, Goth, and Horror-core rap music had claimed Halloween imagery as their own. Horror had become mainstream and an ironic reflection of the times.


The Quintessential Halloween practice of dressing up in costumes, from the late medieval practice of guising, allowed commoners to indulge in phantasy and escapism. Just as present day festival goers and cosplay enthusiasts take on alternative personas to escape the boredom of modern life. There is something in that which I find closely related to the role of an artist in society. Art is intended to alter our perception of the world, and help us to see life from other perspectives. I think of Van Gogh's paintings of the prison yard, Gustave Dore's images of circus performers behind the scenes, or the paintings of Emmit Kelly the sad clown.


There is also the otherworldly in Halloween. In my latest Youtube video, I discuss the tradition of using a hollowed turnip as a Jack-o-Lantern and about the Celtic understanding of the skull as the seat of vitality. There were ruins in ancient Gaul with carved recesses in the standing stones for the placement of skulls, and the Roman legions reported that the Celts would steal the heads of their slain enemies as war trophies to display in their homes. Similar traditions have been reported elsewhere and by the "headhunters" of Borneo and New Guinea. It may also be due to the head being linked to conversation, and when we speak we focus on the eyes. In "primitive" artwork and the paintings of children, the eyes and head are often depicted as unusually large because of this perceived importance.


When it comes to big heads, and artists know all about them, I'm also reminded of the modern mythological image of the grey alien. The stories of UFO abductees are remarkably similar to stories of people encountering fairies and dwarves. The characters of elves, goblins, kobolds, imps, and gnomes were popular early Halloween costumes, as were spacemen and robots in the 1950s, and the baby Yodas and Mandalorians of today. There is something in that tradition to suggest a link between the otherworldly, the so-called "thinning of the veils," and the practice of role reversal and phantasy. The ancient characters of elves and fairies guarded treasures underground, and the modern space alien guards technology, which could be considered the currency of a technological age. Both offer access to hidden realms of treasure, below the ground, beyond the earth, or within the mind!


So it is that art allows us to plumb the depths of the psyche and also a means to return with the treasure. Traditional Irish musicians would tell stories of learning melodies from the fairies, and this was taken as venerable token of authority. There are still cultural traditions in southeast Asia that attribute their artwork to communion with the ancestors, or dreaming, as in the art of the indigenous Australians. My best paintings, or the inspiration for my best paintings, come from dreams. Hallowe'en is a time when the world is dreaming, just before the sound sleep of winter.


One of the themes I discuss in my video on this topic is that of indulgence and the relation to the Elfland. The ideas that fairies, brownies, elves, etc. would punish people for greed yet paradoxically they offer access to a world of infinite desire in their underground treasure rooms. The idea of being lost in Elfland is akin to the modern conception of mental illness and delusion, which are common maladies of artists. The lesson of Halloween is to enjoy the candy, but to share and not to eat too much or too soon.


When we engage with art, whether actively or passively, we part the veil between worlds. Sometimes that is the curtain between the cosmology of ourselves and the artist, or between the artist and the greater cosmos. Just as we can become engrossed in a writer's narrative or rapt up in a singer's song, when we look into a work of art, it looks back. A painting is no different from a movie, and a good painting can be more effective by condensing the time of its production into the instant of observation. Just as a look into the eyes of a Jack-O-Lantern serves as a sort of unspoken conversation with the candle inside, a good painting holds the fire of the creative force within it.


To experience art is as haunting as a seance, and the fibers of a canvas can echo eerily like the walls of an empty banquet hall on the darkest midnight. The very act of observing the image can stir the threads of the artist's weaving and rouse the restless spirit of the moment it was made. We should permit ourselves such eerie experiences more often, and more readily, but keep to the path as we travel the dark forests. The secret, the most effective means to ward off ghosts and goblins, is to keep the light of inspiration in the grinning turnips of our minds.





Works Cited:

  • Santino, Jack. Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life. University of Tennessee Press, 1994.

  • Rogers, Nicholas. Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night. Oxford University Press, 2002.

  • Bannatyne, Lesley Pratt. Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History. Pelican Publishing, 1998.

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